Of The Highest Degree
by E.M. Megs
Summary: She found the body. She started the case. But when "the case" leads to unexpected places and a possible betrayal within the department how will they all disprove the theory to find the truth behind the murder? Possible KyoHaru – AU
1. Prologue: The Beginnings of a Case

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Prologue – The Beginnings of a Case_

– _May 29th – 5:04 PM – _

She had always been a practical woman. She always based all of her teaching methods on proven fact and never on her own beliefs. She taught her English classes using her practicality. Therefore when she had suddenly felt the need to pee more than was normal, she naturally thought something was wrong. _'Oh god. I hope I'm not pregnant,' _she thought unhappily as she walked towards her home blocks from where she worked at the local high school.

Though, she shot down the idea of pregnancy almost immediately. She hadn't been active for over four months since she'd broken things off with her last boyfriend.

Her stomach had also been sending sharp spikes of pain through her entire torso since she had left the school. Really, she needed to go to the doctor. She wouldn't be able to go to work like this. And if the stupid pain kept going like it was she was definitely going to miss the rest of this week at least.

Her poor students. They had their finals coming up and she was getting sick, making her absent for the review. She turned down the alley that was a short cut to her apartment. It was a rather long, filthy one. One that could be hiding dark secrets or freaks anywhere. She could be jumped for all she knew. Mugged and killed and this alley was rarely ever used.

Several steps down the alley the pain in her abdomen skyrocketed, bringing her to her knees. She let out a gasp as she leaned herself against the wall of the building to her right. God... What the hell _was _this? Had she eaten some bad food or something? She was sure she had stayed away from the mystery meat at school that day.

But the odd thing was that she could also feel her heart beating abnormally.

_Bnp-bump, bu-bump-bnp, b-bnump-bu. _

And it hurt like hell.

_Bn-ump, bunp-bum, bu-bump. _

She couldn't think of anything but not to sleep. Not to fall asleep here, in the alley, when she was in this kind of condition.

_Bump-bu, bnump-np, bmp. _

On top of the irregular heartbeat, it was also slowing, she noticed. Slowing with the compulsion she had to pass out. But she _couldn't _pass out in this alley. She _couldn't _because if she did she might just not wait up ever again. She wasn't a fool. She knew what her heartbeat meant.

_Np-bmp, nump-bum, bmp-um. _

Black spots dotted her vision. She couldn't fight it. Dammit.

_Nump-bn, np, bum. _

Her heart slowed even more as her eyes closed.

_Bmp, bum, np. _

Her limbs convulsed violently for a second in rebellion to the sleep.

_Bmp..._

– _May 29th – 7:32 PM – _

Haruhi was walking home from work when she found the body. It was a rare thing that she would ever walk down a dangerous alley when it was getting dark, but she was in a hurry to get home. She was having dinner with her father that night and wanted to get a head start on the cooking.

That was enough to constitute risking her general safety.

She fast-walked down the narrow street with a slight are of anxiousness, stumbling over some stray garbage in her 1-inch heels. She didn't get very far before she came upon a person leaning against the wall. She glanced at them apprehensively.

It was a girl. High cheekbones, auburn hair, eyes closed with a peaceful look on her face though it looked slightly pained as well. She appeared to be asleep. Haruhi came to a stop and frowned at the girl, woman really. She looked like she was about 29 or 30. Couldn't be much older than 33 or younger than 26.

But, what was she doing sleeping in a alley like _this _godforsaken one?

Haruhi took a step closer, noticing now the incredible paleness of this girl's face and the odd way her body was lying. That wasn't exactly normal. She felt a sinking feeling in her gut as she lurched forward and pressed her fingers to the girl's wrist, searching for a pulse.

"Oh God," she mumbled, "Please not today. Today was supposed to be a good, mostly crime-free day, dammit!"

After several more moments of pulse-searching she came to the conclusion that this was, in fact, a dead body. Most people would have freaked out, and inside she was doing just that. But she kept her cool as she stood and dialed the familiar cell number of a co-worker back at the department. She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting three rings before the phone was finally answered. "Haruhi, I'm very busy working on the paperwork from the Rotari case," the male's voice sounded crossly.

– _May 29__th__ – 7:34 PM – _

Kyoya Ohtori was a very busy man. Being one of the top murder investigators in the country did that to a person. And currently, he had nothing but his procrastination to blame on the fact that he had been at the office for an hour overtime working on the paperwork for his last case.

He growled for a moment when his phone rang, breaking into his concentration. _Bring! _He glanced at the front screen where the caller ID was displayed proudly. _Haruhi_. _Bring! _He sighed, what the hell could Haruhi want? Hadn't she gone home already? _Bring! _He figured she wouldn't stop until he answered so he flipped open the phone and muttered crossly, "Haruhi, I'm very busy working on the paperwork for the Rotari case."

She scoffed lightly on the other end. "You don't sound very busy." He rustled a few papers loudly as if to make a point. He got the mental picture of her rolling her eyes in his head as he did so. "Whatever," she grumbled before her voice took on a slight note of urgency. "Kyoya, I found someone."

"Good for you. I'm glad you found someone to share your happiness with since you left that blonde idiot. But why do I need to know this?" he murmured distractedly if not sarcastically, shuffling around papers on his desk, scratching in a few details in one of the blanks on the document.

Haruhi sighed in frustration, making him smirk. "One, it's a girl. And two, she's dead."

He froze at the word _dead_, lowering the paper that he was holding.And here he thought he was going to get to go home soon. Maybe go out for a drink. _'There goes my plans,' _he thought. Then carefully he asked, "You're sure?"

"Positive."

"You didn't move the body or anything right?" He shoved all his paperwork aside, pulling open the drawer of his desk that held his gun with more force than necessary. He picked it up and snapped the clip of ammo into it, slamming the drawer shut again before grabbing his badge and car keys.

"I'm not stupid, Kyoya," she muttered angrily, "I checked for a pulse and that's it."

"Where are you?" He pulled his coat on.

"An alley just off of 6th downtown. It's on the way to my apartment." He nodded to himself, seeing a map form in his head of her location.

"Stay where you are. I'll be right there with a couple CSIs. And for the love of God, please don't jump ahead of yourself this time," he grunted, heading out of the small office that he called his own and heading straight for the CSI lab on the other side of the building. "Anyone specific you'd prefer, Miss Head-CSI?"

She snorted at his joke. She was far from being the head. "Hikaru and Kaoru if their free."

Inwardly, Kyoya rolled his eyes. Of course. She always chose the Hitachiin brothers. Subsequently they were also the ones that worked the fastest and were almost always free for a case. He pushed open the doors of the break room and found the twin brothers lounging in chairs with a can of coke. They glanced up. "Fancy seeing you here, Kyoya," Hikaru muttered.

"Really, you never visit the break room," Kaoru agreed.

He shot them a glare and spoke into his phone, "Their definitely free. I'll be there in 10." He snapped the phone shut without receiving a reply. "Get your gear. Haruhi found a body on her way home from work."

That got them to jump into action, grabbing their coats and running back to their offices to grab their lab kits. He smirked. Any mention of _Haruhi _and _body _in the same sentence got them going. "Ready!" they chorused as they returned, following him as he set off at a brisk pace back down the hall.

– _May 29th – 7:45 PM – _

The alleyway was too narrow for them to drive down, but they could see Haruhi standing part way down. Kyoya parked his car and shut off the ignition. A couple cop cars pulled up behind him, securing the area with yellow tape almost before he got out of his car. Hikaru and Kaoru ducked under the tape and ran toward Haruhi with their metal box-kits in hand. Kyoya followed slower. "Haruhi!" the twins cried, "You're ok right?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded, "I'm fine." Her eyes met Kyoya's for a moment before glancing back down at the body. His eyes followed hers.

"No identification," Hikaru muttered as Kyoya started spacing out. Oh shit.

"I'd think it was a mugging gone bad if not for the absence of blood," Kaoru continued shortly. Shit, shit, shit. It was _her_? Why _her_?

"I'll send out a description to have the body identified," Haruhi muttered, moving to push past them as Hikaru and Kaoru went to work processing the scene, leaving the body for the medical examiner.

Kyoya stared at the dead girl, knowing immediately that this was going to be one of the most difficult cases he had ever worked. Why? Because he knew her. "No need, Haruhi," he stated dryly, forcing all emotion from his voice, "Riyuki Sachiru."

She looked at him quizzically. "How do you know?"

He swallowed back a lump in his throat and said, rather coldly, "I think I'd know what my ex-girlfriend looks like."

– _May 29th – 8:00 PM – _

Somewhere in a classroom an eccentric French teacher at the local high school was preparing his for his classes the following day. He hummed cheerfully as he pulled together his lesson plans. Absently he flipped on the television to give him some background noise, finding a news story.

He frowned but left it where it was. He was only using it for background noise after all. It didn't really matter what it was that was showing. The recent departure of his wife from his life had left him surprisingly cheerful even if she had taken nearly a quarter of his fortune when she had filed for divorce.

"... Found dead in an alley," the reporter mumbled in the background. He sighed and shook his head. Nothing on TV anymore but the drastic murder cases flinging around the city. Such a waste of public television. "... Investigator Kyoya Ohtori refuses to comment."

His ears perked up. Kyoya had another case? Already? Jesus. That man was overworked.

"Good luck, Kyoya," he muttered with pity in his voice as he flipped off the television and gathered his things so he could head home.

–

Somewhere in the city, a dark haired man smirked as he leaned back in his chair watching the latest news story. A young woman had been found dead in an alleyway by a lawyer on her way home from work.

They'd never expect a thing.

–

**A/N: I know... I already have LD and AN in the works. But this idea wouldn't leave me alone! And once I got it in my head on my way home from the family reunion I couldn't let it go. Thus, this arose. Do I need a life or what? I'll probably be able to update EVERYTHING more once school gets out IN THREE WEEKS. (I really need to stop watching those crime shows) **

**Dunno if I'm going to put anything between the Hosts yet. This one'll be more centered around the mystery and crime than anything else methinks (I'm so good at nursing my muse.) **

**If you like it... drop by a review and tell me so? Even if you don't, tell me that too! **


	2. Chapter 1: Nonexistent Evidence

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Chapter 1 – Nonexistent Evidence_

– _May 29__th__ – 7:46 PM – _

"Haruhi," Kyoya spoke after several moments of silence. He shook his head and waved his hand at the three 31-year-olds sympathetic stares. "I'll need to take your statement." She just stared at him in an unfathomable fashion. He sighed. "I'm _fine_. She was my _ex_. It's not like I actually still cared for her."

The woman in front of him let out a skeptical 'hmph' and turned on her heel heading back down the alley. Kyoya watched her for a moment with narrowed eyes. His partner. God. He turned his gaze to the twins who were still staring at him. "For the love of fucking God. Stop staring at me and get back to work. I want everything that could possibly pertain to this case cataloged before the end of the night."

Kaoru was first to avert his gaze, mumbling, "Yessir," under his breath. Hikaru followed his action after giving the raven-haired male one last hard stare. Kyoya nodded and took off at a brisk pace to where Haruhi was waiting for him.

"Are you sure you should be working on this case, Kyoya?" she muttered when he reached her.

He rolled his eyes in exasperation, pulling out his pocket-notebook. "I'm sure, Haruhi. Stop worrying. Now, how did you find the body?"

Haruhi drew in a deep breath and wrapped her arms around herself. These stupid statements always did strange things to her emotions. "I was walking home. Took this alley as a short cut so I could get home faster." He scribbled notes down, scowling at this, not liking that his partner had risked her personal safety like that. "Oh stop. I was perfectly fine. Anyway, I saw her and... I thought that she was sleeping at first." She laughed softly and ran a hand through her hair, finally feeling her calm from earlier slip. Kyoya stood there awkwardly, knowing what it was doing to her but not knowing what to do. "She was too pale. So I checked her pulse on her left wrist and then called you."

He nodded in thought, scribbling the last of what she said down. "That's it?" She nodded, staring off into space blankly for a moment. He thought for a moment and then said very softly, "Haruhi... I want you to work this case with Hikaru and Kaoru. Run the scene."

"But I discovered the body. I ca–."

He cut off her wild protests. "Just because you discovered the body doesn't mean you can't work the case. I'm personally connected to the victim and I still can. I want to know what happened to her. The three of you working together is the best bet I have of gaining that knowledge."

Haruhi bit her lip for a moment and nodded. "Alright." Kyoya smirked and took her arm, turning her around and pushing her back toward the twins.

"Go find me some evidence."

– _May 29__th__ – 7:49 PM – _

Hikaru and Kaoru glanced over at Kyoya and Haruhi as they worked. "Think he's really alright, Kaoru?" Hikaru asked his brother, picking up a bag of trash and moving it aside so he could get better access to the ground around the body.

"I don't know. He hides what he's really thinking too well," Kaoru replied, frowning as he held up his camera and took a few shots of the position Riyuki's body was in. "This is ridiculous," he muttered under in breath, "There's no evidence but the body and her purse. It's like she dropped dead."

"But, it's his ex-girlfriend. He had to have had feelings for her at some point. Remember that blonde that I dated a while back? I still see her following me," Hikaru mused. "Things like that don't just go away."

"Well, maybe it is eating him up. It's none of our business. If he thinks he can handle this then leave it be," Kaoru muttered distractedly, taking a picture of the purse on the ground where it had landed most likely when she had dropped down into the position she was in now. "We'll have to look through her purse when we get back to the lab."

Hikaru shrugged. "We don't even know if this was an accident or fowl play. Nekozawa's autopsy should give us more of a clue as to what happened than the evidence here."

"Don't tell Kyoya that," his brother grumbled, shaking his head and glancing back at the couple at the end of the alley. "Ah. Here they come."

"What have you got so far?" Haruhi asked, pulling on her gloves. She took the camera from Kaoru and flipped through the pictures on the card. She stared at the eight. "That's it?" She glanced up at them.

The twins averted their gaze as Kyoya stared them down. "There's nothing to work with. She seems to have just dropped dead right here," Hikaru explained, glancing at Kaoru nervously. The department's lead investigator scared the crap out of them sometimes.

"There may be something inside her purse but we can't look at that until we get back to the lab," Kaoru continued, also taking on a nervous yet slightly calmer air.

"When Nekozawa arrives he can assess the situation from a medical view."

"But until he performs the autopsy there's nothing saying that fowl play was part of this."

Kyoya growled under his breath in frustration. "Haruhi," he addressed the woman at his side. She jumped and glanced at him, startled. "Take another look." She blanched at him.

"Kyoya... If Hikaru and Kaoru..."

"I don't care. A third set of eyes looking around never hurt anyone," he cut off abruptly, "Look Haruhi. Hikaru and Kaoru, go back to the lab with the purse and start looking through it. I'll call Riyuki's parents." He coughed awkwardly as the twins stared at him. They snapped out of it and nodded, taking off down the alley, leaving their kits behind for Haruhi to use.

She sighed and turned to him. "Kyoya..."

"Do it, Haruhi," he stated bluntly, turning on his heel and going back down the alley. He pulled out his phone. He dialed the number of Riyuki's parents house. Was it a bad thing that he still remembered the number from so long ago? He drew in a breath and pushed talk.

Two rings and a female voice answered, "Hello?"

"Kiyomi Sachiru? This is Kyoya Ohtori from the Tokyo Police Department," he murmured briskly.

She didn't reply for a moment. "You're the guy that Riyuki dated 3 years ago," she muttered. Kyoya imagined her narrowing her eyes at her phone.

"Yes. That's true. But I'm calling because something unfortunate has happened to your daughter." May as well get right to the point. Beating around the bush wasn't going to make this any less painful for the family. He'd learned that lesson long ago.

"What? What happened to Yuki? Oh God. Minoru!" Kyoya sighed inwardly. Riyuki's mother had always been one to worry at the smallest thing pertaining to her daughter. When he had asked her out however, it had been Minoru who had overreacted the most. Her father had actually brought out a shotgun.

Soon another deeper voice joined Kiyomi's. "What is it, Kiyo?"

Kyoya cut in before Kiyomi answered. "Sir, I regret to inform you that your daughter is dead. She was found by my partner on the way home from work."

There was silence on the other end right before the dead girl's mother let out a loud, sorrowful wail. Kyoya winced and held the phone away from his ear. That wasn't what he had expected. Minoru's outraged voice cut through. "What do you mean _dead_? How dare you call us and tell us these lies!"

"Sachiru-san, I'd be happy to allow you to come downtown and see for yourself."

"I'll be taking up that offer. Half an hour," he growled. The line went dead. The bastard had hung up on him. Kyoya shut his phone and slipped it back into his pocket, rubbing his temple with one hand and pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. This was going to be a long case.

– _May 29__th__ – 7:57 PM – _

Haruhi wanted to strangle her partner. No worse. She wanted to throttle him. This was useless. She'd be better off helping the twins process the purse than squatting here on the ground searching for evidence that didn't exist. She grumbled under her breath crossly.

She wished she hadn't been the one that had called this in. Having to glance over the dead body while she searched did nothing to help her. She glanced over at Kyoya. He was chatting on his cellphone looking rather annoyed and rather grave at the same time. Suddenly he snapped his phone shut and brought his hands to his head.

Haruhi frowned. He was more a part of this case than any of them were. He shouldn't be working it. But he insisted.

And now he was heading toward her. The bastard. She hurriedly made it look like she was still working. She could just feel him watching her from behind, utterly silent. "Find anything?" his voice broke the silence.

"Nope. It's just as the twins said. Nothing. Nekozawa here yet?"

"Just pulled up. He'll be taking Riy–the victim's body back to the lab." The avoidance of saying Riyuki's name did not escape Haruhi at all. She narrowed her eyes at him. He gazed back expressionlessly.

"Can I get back to the lab now?" she asked with the same blunt, bored tone she always used.

"Of course. Though, I suggest letting me drive you." He smirked when she shot him a glare.

"I can walk perfectly fine."

"Forecast says it's supposed to rain tonight." She sighed in exasperation and accepted his offer begrudgingly.

"What have we got here?" a voice asked from behind them. Kyoya turned first, leaving Haruhi to gaze at the dead girl. "Murder? Suicide? Accident?" He almost sounded thrilled to be examining a corpse. The other two adults suppressed shudders.

"No clue," Haruhi muttered as their colleague knelt next to the body, "We were hoping you could tell us that."

Umehito Nekozawa nodded to himself, pulling out a thermometer from the kit he was carrying and sticking it in the corpse. It slid in rather easily, much to his surprise. "I can tell you time of death now. However, cause you'll probably have to wait for. There doesn't appear to be any obvious signs of trauma or outer hemorrhaging, leading me to believe that it was something internal."

"She was completely healthy the last time I saw her," Kyoya spoke roughly, gazing at the woman lying on the ground. "Time of death?"

"Body temp is still rather warm constituting that if Fujioka-san had started walking home somewhere between an hour to three hours ago she would have run into her while she was dying." Haruhi blinked. She could have possibly saved this woman had she left the office early?

"One to three hours ago?" Kyoya asked in disbelief. That was the rarest thing he'd ever heard. Normally a corpse wasn't found for 6 hours at least.

"Rigor has yet to set in as well. Should make it easier to transport her and get her into a position easy enough to perform the autopsy." He snickered darkly with this comment, almost like a cackle. Again, Haruhi suppressed a shudder. Sometimes, how much Nekozawa loved his job was a little creepy to the rest of his colleagues.

Kyoya had a dangerous glint in his eye. "Take her back to the lab then. I want a full autopsy report on my desk ASAP. Come on, Haruhi." He took off down the alley again at a brisk pace, heading to his car. Haruhi glanced at Nekozawa and Riyuki before following after him, sprinting to catch up.

All she could think about was how she had never seen Kyoya so unnerved and insistent about a case.

– _May 29__th__ – 8:47 PM – _

Hikaru and Kaoru were working on the purse contents when they arrived, after grabbing a quick dinner and calling Haruhi's father, of course. Hikaru was seated at his computer while Kaoru was bent over the table, various items spread over its surface. Haruhi watched them work from the door for a moment, awed by the intensity of their concentration. Kaoru glanced over at her. "Hey Haruhi."

"Hey guys," she muttered, striding over to stand next to Kaoru. She plopped a paper bag full of noodles and udon on the table. Motioning that it was for them. "That's for the two of you. Kyoya and I already ate. What're you up to?"

"Thanks." they chorused, ignoring it for the time being. "Hikaru's looking at the cellphone records. I'm looking through the other contents," Kaoru added in response to her question. Of course. Hikaru was doing the computer work. She nodded.

"And?"

"Nothing so far. There still isn't any signs that there was a crime committed. All her money appears to be here, credit cards. She wasn't mugged."

"We treat it as a crime until the autopsy and evidence say otherwise," she quoted Kyoya, rolling her eyes with the twins. She picked up a piece of paper that the younger twin hadn't quite gotten to yet and unfolded it. She sighed. Nothing but a receipt for a take-out restaurant. "This is slightly ridiculous though."

"Woah," Hikaru muttered, staring at his computer screen. "Haruhi, come here."

Haruhi hurried over, gazing over his shoulder. "_What_?" she asked incredulously, staring open-mouthed at the first name on the call list. Kaoru looked over at the two quizzically. "What the hell is this?" she demanded.

"Looks like Tono's been up to something," Hikaru chuckled with a grin.

His brother looked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment then it hit him. "_Tamaki _was her last call?" He grabbed the bag of food and took out a container of noodles, treating it as if it were popcorn and the conversation unfolding was a horror film.

"Makes sense," a fourth voice came from the door, "She was his wife. Well, ex-wife now." The younger twin grabbed a pair of chopsticks and shoved a load of noodles in his mouth, looking at Kyoya then back at Haruhi.

Haruhi stared at Kyoya. "He got _married_? When?" Hikaru smiled inwardly and joined his brother.

"Two years ago, probably not long after you left him. His father set it up. Coincidentally, she's an English teacher at the same school he teaches French at. And they're both heirs to huge family businesses. That's why their parents set them up," Kyoya explained with a smirk. "Got divorced a few months ago."

"Lawsuits?" Haruhi asked, still in utter disbelief.

Kyoya chuckled darkly. "She took 4 million yen at least." The twins whistled loudly, eyes wide, and shoveled food in their mouths faster. The older man crossed the room. "I'm working on getting a warrant to search the apartment she shared with one of her college friends."

Haruhi sighed exasperatedly. "There's still no evidence that there was any crime, Kyoya! You told me not to get ahead of myself this time. But, you're the one getting ahead of yourself!" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Seriously. There isn't enough here. Wait for the autopsy before you go off searching. It might have been natural."

He stared at her blankly. "She was completely healthy last time I saw her. I've talked to Tamaki and she was perfectly fine at work today as well."

"She _appeared _healthy. That doesn't mean she didn't have some internal problem that wasn't showing through! Wait for the autopsy."

"Fine," he growled, "Fine. But I have a feeling in my gut that something happened to her that wasn't natural." Haruhi closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a distressed family to see." With that he turned on his heel and left.

Haruhi leaned back against the table while Hikaru and Kaoru looked at her. "He's definitely not alright."

– _May 29__th__ – 8:34 PM – _

"What did you do to her, Ohtori?" Minoru growled, clenching and releasing his fists.

"I did nothing," the accused shot back sharply, "My colleague found her body while walking home from work. I'm merely working to find out what happened. Follow me." Kyoya took off down the hall, not bothering to check to see if the Sachirus were following.

The morgue was completely dark when they entered the room. All except for a single bright part where Nekozawa was leaning over a body. "Nekozawa."

He jumped. "Ohtori. I don't have anything yet," he stated, glancing at the corpse on the table then back at Kyoya, "Hardly have even gotten her body through the door. Was just processing."

Kyoya waved his hand. "I'm not here for a report yet. Her family's here." He motioned to where Riyuki's parents were standing behind him. His colleague nodded, glancing at them.

"Ahh. Be my guest then." Nekozawa stepped aside, writing down a few notes on a sheet of paper on his desk.

The Sachirus stepped up and almost immediately Kiyomi let out a shriek of despair, shrinking back into her husband's arms. "Believe me now?" Kyoya asked with a slight angered edge.

"H-How?" Minoru asked, looking distraught.

"We don't know. I'll be sure to inform you if anything pops up," Kyoya muttered. "Now, feel free to leave whenever you feel ready to." Minoru nodded at him, shaking slightly with the sobs he was trying to hold in while his wife cried freely.

Kyoya turned and left them alone.

– _May 29__th__ – 8:40 PM – _

Haruhi, Hikaru, and Kaoru headed to the break room, waiting for Kyoya to get done with Riyuki's family. However, when they saw him, he walked straight past the the break room and toward his office. The three 31-year-olds watched him as he walked past. "Never seen him so pissed," Hikaru muttered.

"He's not pissed," Kaoru replied softly.

"Agreed," Haruhi stated quietly, standing. She left before either of them could comment, picking up her pace to a light jog in order to catch up with her partner. He had reached his office by the time she actually caught him though. "Kyoya."

"Haruhi," he acknowledged, immersing himself in paperwork at once which effectively blocked her out for the most part.

She sighed softly and leaned against the door frame. "You can't hide behind a facade forever you know," she murmured.

"I'm not hiding behind a facade," he retorted with a snort.

"For crying out loud! She was your ex-girlfriend! You can't tell me that you're absolutely unaffected!"

He paused, glancing up at her over his oval frames. "But I... am completely unaffected, Haruhi," he said in a low dangerous voice. He scribbled something down, seemingly ignoring her once more.

"Bullshit," she growled. His glasses flashed, leaning back slightly. "You're never this determined or insistent about a case."

He shook his head leaning forward again to make the light flash over his glasses. "This conversation is over."

Haruhi huffed in annoyance. "Stubborn bastard," she muttered, turning on her heel and strutting back to the break room.

– _May 30__th__ – 1:53 AM – _

Kyoya's concentration was broken for the second time that day by his phone ringing. He set his jaw in annoyance but it only rang twice, indicating a text message. He glanced at the cellphone's front screen. _Nekozawa_. He sucked in a breath and finished up his paperwork before flipping it open quickly. He glanced over the message faster than lightening and launched himself toward the morgue.

Five hours. Five hours, nearly 10 cups of coffee, and endless mountains of busy-work and he finally had an autopsy report to use. He caught sight of Haruhi asleep on her desk on his way past her office and stopped for a moment, contemplating whether to wake her up or not.

He decided against it and continued on his way.

Practically running to the morgue you would have thought that he was in a hurry. And when he finally entered the door to his destination the department's coroner was waiting for him with a full report to press into his hand.

"What did you find?" Kyoya demanded immediately.

"Blood-shot eyes. Paling of the skin practically over her entire body." He paused and picked up one of the dead girl's hands, tilting it to show him the fingernails. "White lines on the nails. She also has these peculiar ulcers on some of her internal organs and her liver is swollen."

Kyoya blinked, holding down the vomit that was working its way up his throat. "Meaning the cause of death is?"

"Definitely some kind of poison. Arsenic most likely. Whether by suicide or murder," Nekozawa answered promptly, suppressing a small cackle. This was exactly the kind of thing that would happen to the people he cursed if they pissed him off one too many times. Seeing the result in the flesh was all the more satisfying, even if she wasn't his own victim.

"Knew it," Kyoya muttered under his breath. "Thanks, Nekozawa." He turned on his heel, meaning to leave so he could go tell Haruhi that he hadn't been getting ahead of himself.

"That's not all." He turned around again slowly. "Her last meal was take-out from what I can tell. And a snack of a couple donuts later. I'll send a bit of it up to Kaoru in Tox so he can confirm whether its arsenic or some other poison." Kyoya snorted, knowing that it wouldn't get done since the twins had gone home to get some sleep 4 and a half hours ago.

"Twins left for the night. Send it to Renge or Hunny. I think they're still here. If not... Well, I suppose Haruhi or I could always do it," he murmured. Nekozawa handed him a small container of half-digested food. Yeah, looking at that was definitely what his stomach needed at the moment. "Thanks," he muttered dryly.

"A few partial prints were on the body. Nothing that could be used to connect it to someone though. Sent them to Hunny anyway though along with the clothes to Renge."

Kyoya nodded in thought, knowing where he was headed next. "Anything else?"

"Nope. If I find anything else I'll call you," the slightly creepier man replied, nodding at him in respect. "Go do your thing."

He chuckled darkly. "Oh trust me. I will."

–

**A/N: I think Nekozawa makes an awesome coroner/ME don't you think? And Kyoya makes one bad-ass cop/boss. I can practically imagine him in a Gibbs trench-coat. And the twins as CSIs fits as well. I feel so proud for connecting everyone to the roles that I connected them to. **

**Next chapter you get to find what caused Riyuki's painful death. Exciting, hmm? And Kyoya shan't be pleased, no matter what it is. **

**Kudos to Raines, SisterFriend, BlackestNight BrightestDay, and Koharu Veddette. Such a nice response. Let's get a similar one this time. **

**Disclaimer: Figure I should slip this little thing in. Has anyone seen the news? I totally got full rights of OHSHC! Yeah... I wish. I got a restraining order instead. **


	3. Chapter 2: Securing

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Chapter 2 - Securing_

– _May 30th – 2:16 AM – _

_Waaaah! Sorry Kyo-chan! I'll get right to the prints tomorrow! I'm too sleepy to work right now! -Hunny _

_I've been here since 5 in the morning TWO DAYS AGO, Kyoya. I'm going home to sleep. I'll work on the clothes when I've had at least 5 hours. -Renge_

Kyoya scowled at the notes his co-workers had left him on their desks, glancing at the clock. It was only 2 in the morning! He'd stayed up three days in a row with barely any sleep several times before! Nekozawa pulled two day shifts on a regular basis, for Pete's sake! Then again, the others weren't used to the same kind of irregular sleep schedule he had.

He could always hand it over to the night shift. Or let it wait till morning. He suppressed a yawn of exhaustion and trudged back toward his office reluctantly. Haruhi was still dead asleep on her desk when he passed. He'd been planning to use the couch in Haruhi's office, ironically one of the only actual couches in the entire building. But seeing her asleep on her _desk _made it seem more like she deserved it. Besides, she had an equally comfortable recliner that he could use.

Carefully, he pushed open the office door, striding to Haruhi's side with slight sluggishness. He let out the yawn he'd been holding in as he slipped one of his arms under her legs, using his other to support her lower back as he lifted her from her chair.

He grunted softly under his breath, wondering what the hell she'd been eating lately since this used to be a hell of a lot easier, and shuffled over to the couch. Somehow she stayed asleep and just curled up the moment he set her down. "Unbelievable," he muttered under his breath, taking the blanket that was draped over the back of the couch and laying it over her before grabbing the second for himself. He tossed his glasses on her desk.

Settling down in the tan recliner, he pulled the second blanket over his body.

Time for him to get a well-deserved rest.

– _May 30th – 9:39 AM – _

Haruhi groaned slightly when sunlight filtered through the blinds rather close to her face. She rolled, expecting to find open bed space for her to lay on. Instead she fell straight to the floor, squeaking in the process. "What the hell?" she grumbled, sitting up with a hand rubbing her head.

She looked around, stretching her arm over her head. _'Oh right. I fell asleep in my office,' _she thought tiredly. But, hadn't she been at her desk...? That's when she caught sight of the sleeping Ohtori in the recliner. _'Ah... That explains it.' _

She disentangled herself from the blanket and stood up, trying to be as quiet as possible. She was only too aware of her partner's horrible temper when woken up early. The twins called him the 'Low Blood Pressure Evil Lord' purely because of it. Needless to say, she definitely didn't want to deal with that side of him when she had just woken up herself.

She managed to get herself over to her desk before she slammed into the corner of it. "Ow!" she gasped, glancing quickly over at Kyoya. He shifted in his sleep, growling softly. Haruhi held her breath. He turned over and appeared to be asleep again.

She let out her breath, continuing on her tip-toe path to her office door. "Haruhi."

She winced, turning slowly. "Yeah?"

"Where are you going?" Kyoya asked, one eye trained on her and a tired smirk on his face.

Haruhi cleared her throat nervously. "To get some coffee, I suppose."

"Get me a cup."

She sighed, half in relief, half in exasperation. "Alright. No sugar or cream right?" He nodded, closing his one eye again and throwing an arm over both of them. "Lazy bastard," she grumbled as she left the room.

"Heard that!" he called after her.

– _May 30th – 9:52 AM – _

"How long have you been awake?" Haruhi deadpanned as she handed Kyoya his cup of coffee. He snorted and leaned his head back, choosing to ignore her for awhile. He took a long drink from the mug in his hand, sighing even though the liquid practically scorched his throat.

"On and off for the past 3 hours or so," he murmured after several minutes of silence. He drew in another gulp while she sipped hers tentatively.

"And when exactly did you finally decide to crash in my office?"

He swallowed. "Two in the morning."

"And what, may I ask, were you doing until 2 in the morning?" she asked incredulously, staring at him and talking to him like a mother scolding her child.

"Waiting for and assessing the autopsy report," he replied, eyes still closed. "And I don't suggest using that tone with me when I've only had relatively 4 hours of sleep," he added offhandedly, waving a hand in her direction and opening one eye to look at her. She suppressed a shudder. He looked comfortable, even if he was in a bad mood.

"Why didn't you go home?"

"Didn't want to risk passing out at the wheel."

"Could've woken me up. I would have loved an actual bed to sleep on," she muttered, stretching her sore back muscles and taking her first real gulp of coffee. She shivered pleasantly as it went down.

He snorted in response. "I've dealt with you when you're woken up. You're nearly as bad as me."

"That's a lie," she growled, pointing at him.

"Yeah," he grumbled sarcastically, "Sure. You just give a glare that scares the shit out of the twins and roll over again."

"At least I actually get out of bed within a reasonable amount of time," Haruhi shot back fiercely. "And I don't scare the shit out of the twins. That would be your department. I merely frighten them temporarily." Kyoya actually let out a bark of laughter, setting his mug down so he wouldn't spill. "Since you stayed up so long just for the autopsy report I assume you have something to share with me?"

Ah, yes. Now he got his gloating time. "I was right. It wasn't natural. She was poisoned."

"Confirmed murder?"

"Could be suicide. But she wasn't depressed."

"I thought she was your ex," she commented dryly, "Seems like you know quite a bit about her still."

"We were still friends," he replied coldly.

"So it _did _affect you more than you're letting on!"

"I didn't say that."

"You implied it. By accepting the fact that she was a friend you accept that you're affected by her death."

"You're assuming again, Haruhi. You know what I've told you about assuming."

"Shut up," she muttered, downing the rest of her coffee and standing so she could get another cup. Kyoya quickly finished off his and handed her his empty mug silently as well. She glowered at him. _'I am not his servant.' _

– _May 30th – 10:33 AM – _

A cup of coffee and another minor argument later, they were at a local diner to get breakfast with the twins, Hunny, and Renge. "How long have you two been in the lab?" Haruhi asked the twins, rubbing her temple while she reached into her bag to grab the bottle of Advil she kept in there. She wordlessly handed it to Kyoya once she had popped two of the tiny red pills.

"8 AM," they chorused cheerfully.

Kyoya snorted. At least some of them had gotten a decent amount of sleep. He threw the autopsy report down in front of them. "Poison. Nekozawa suspects arsenic. Told you it wasn't natural," he growled, cutting fiercely into his ham and stuffing it in his mouth. "I'm guessing that since the four of you have been in and awake since what I assume is 9 AM at least that you've all at least started on your jobs?"

Haruhi groaned quietly and set her head on the table in front of her, feeling every single muscle in her body throb. She threw her own guesses on their statuses out. "Hunny started running the prints through AVIS as soon as he arrived. Renge dawdled for about 45 minutes with one of the night shift guys then started processing the clothes. Hikaru and Kaoru have barely even started due to the fact that they were also dawdling when some of the night shift workers," she muttered, pointing at each one in sequence without raising her head.

All four stared at her while her partner merely smirked. "She knows you too well," he commented.

"No. They do that every morning," Haruhi deadpanned, finally lifting her head so she could reach back to rub her neck. "That couch isn't very nice to sleep on," she added under her breath.

Kyoya ignored her. "What have you found, dawdling or not?"

Hunny was first to respond, bouncing excitedly as he did so. "One of the prints was enough to compare, Kyo-chan!" he beamed.

"Was there a match?" he asked, sitting up a little straighter.

"No," the oldest of them all looked rather downcast with this statement but he brightened up almost immediately, "But if you get a suspect's prints, I can easily see if it matches! According to Neko-chan it was on her neck. Strange, ne?"

Kyoya's grip on his fork tightened, an action that was only noticed by Haruhi. She narrowed her eyes at him in slight concern. He relaxed almost instantaneously when he saw her watching though. "Yes," he muttered dryly, "Strange. Renge?"

Renge snapped her eyes to him from where they had been lingering on a waiter. He rose an eyebrow at her. "What?" she demanded sharply, "I'm not allowed to fantasize?" The twins made snickering noises while Kyoya just shook his head. "Multiple foreign fibers on her clothes. Could be anything normal for her though. She does work in a high school with 2400 students after all."

"Try to identify them when we get back. If you find multitudes of the same thing I'm going to assume that it's a lead to a potential suspect if we can link it to them." Renge nodded, looking determined.

"Kyoya," Haruhi muttered from the side, "Don't forget to eat." She made a pointed motion to her nearly finished plate versus his practically untouched one. "Hikaru, Kaoru?"

Kaoru sat back, pushing his plate away from him. "Started the food processing tests right before we left. They should be finished by the time I get back. Then I can extract out any traces of arsenic or other poison from it."

Kyoya swallowed his food and opened his mouth but Haruhi glared at him and pointed to his plate. "I can handle this," she growled, "Good. Do it. Confirm the poison. I'll head to the DA and put in to get a warrant to search her apartment. If she was poisoned intentionally by someone else it was either at work or home."

"That means we'll need to search her classroom as well, Haru-chan," Hunny interjected.

"We don't need a warrant for that. Schools are normally very cooperative. Especially when it comes to dead teachers." She'd obviously worked a case involving a dead teacher before. Haruhi suppressed a yawn.

"Hey Haruhi," Hikaru stated curiously.

"Don't schools clean their classrooms on a regular basis?" Kaoru finished.

Haruhi and Kyoya both froze, Kyoya mid-chew. "Shit," she muttered, "Shit!" She banged her hand on the table briefly before standing and throwing her coat on. "Kaoru, confirm the poison. Renge, run those fibers. Hikaru, keep close to the lab. You'll probably have some hacking to do when we get a hold of Riyuki's computer. Both of you will probably be running scenes soon, depending on how securing them goes. Hunny help Renge if you can."

"Haruhi," Kyoya said, standing as well. She glanced down at his plate suspiciously. It was clean. "I'll send a couple of suits to the apartment, don't need a warrant if her roommate lets them in, and drop you off at the school on my way to the Sachirus to see if they know of any potential suspects. Get the classroom corded off if you can. If the trash has been taken out then go get the dumpster."

"Classroom's already contaminated," Hikaru piped. Kyoya was already heading for the door.

"Still will be able to get something from it," Haruhi shot back at him distractedly. She threw a couple thousand yen on the table and took off after Kyoya. "We'll call if there's a scene to process!" she added over her shoulder.

– _May 30th – 11:14 AM – _

Kyoya came to a screeching halt in front of the school, dropping a Haruhi that was practically in heart-attack mode. "You have your badge right?" She smiled at him sarcastically. He knew she didn't have a badge. She was technically a lawyer who the DA refused to give a badge to even though she had just as much forensic knowledge as law _and _she acted like a CSI for the department more than a lawyer. "A couple suits are coming anyway as back up. Nothing serious. Call me if you have trouble."

She nodded hurriedly, stepping out of the car. "I have a feeling Tamaki's going to get wrapped up in this," she muttered in a low voice.

He nodded hurriedly and waved her off. " We'll worry about it later! Go, Haruhi!"

She sighed and shut the door, stepping back to watch him speed off. She remembered why she normally wouldn't ride with Kyoya when he was in a hurry now. He tended to pull pinwheel turns that made her heart accelerate and drove 20 miles over the speed limit. She turned to look at the school building in front of her. It was the average high school. Built with metal, glass, and brick. Steps leading to double doors.

She climbed said steps and pushed open the doors gently. The main office was immediately to the right. She entered with an air of confidence and authority. The secretary at the front desk looked up at her over her wire-rimmed spectacles. "May I help you?"

Haruhi nodded and leaned forward to shake her hand. "Haruhi Fujioka. I'm a lawyer working with the Tokyo Police Department to solve a recent murder. I need to speak to the principal immediately. It's urgent."

The secretary nodded skeptically. "Uh huh. Well. I'm afraid you'll have to wait. He's in a meeting."

Haruhi gave her a cold smile that she had learned from her partner. "I don't think you understand. This teacher's classroom could be a crime scene and it's becoming more and more contaminated by the second. I'd hate to have to take you to court with the charge of holding up a police investigation."

The smug look on the secretary's face fell immediately. She coughed awkwardly and then picked up her phone receiver, dialing an in building number quickly. "Chutori-sama? There's a lawyer here to see you on behalf of Tokyo PD. Yes, she's very serious. I think it'd be best. Alright. Yessir." She hung up. "You can go back. First door on the left."

Nodding her thanks, Haruhi slipped past the desk and into the given door. The principal stood up and shook her hand as she entered. Other than him though the office was suspiciously empty. She suppressed the urge to curse the secretary. "Principal Akio Chutori."

"Haruhi Fujioka."

"What can I do for you Fujioka-san?" he asked, motioning for her to take a seat as he reseated himself.

"You can clear out and cord off Riyuki Sachiru's classroom," Haruhi said very seriously.

Akio's mouth hung open for a moment as he stared at her. "Why...? Is she under suspicion of something?"

"No. The opposite actually. She's dead." Akio spluttered and choked on his coffee. "Suspected to be murdered. We think that her classroom might be a crime scene."

He cleared his throat, coughing a bit. "O-Of course. It will be done." He picked up his phone, dialing and waiting for an answer. "Take your students to the gym. Yes, have them take all their things but not to touch anything. Leave everything as it was when you arrived this morning. Thank you." He lowered the receiver back into it's cradle and looked at her again. "Give them five minutes and then you can take in your men to tape it off."

She nodded. "Thank you, Chutori-san."

"Do you think it may have been one of the students?" he asked as she turned to leave.

Haruhi turned back around slowly. "It's possible. But it would be difficult for the students to get a hold of the murder weapon so it isn't likely." She started to leave again.

"What about Suoh?"

She froze at the mere mention of his name and answered without spinning around, "That, I can't comment on."

– _May 30__th__ – 11:22 AM – _

Kyoya was met by the scowling face of Minoru Sachiru. "My daughter's dead and you're still badgering me," he stated tiredly.

"And I apologize for that. But I need to ask you and your wife a few questions if we're going to find out who did this," the younger man replied. "May I come in please? It'll only take a few minutes." Minoru sighed and pushed the door open enough to allow him through. Kyoya nodded at him and let himself in.

Kiyomi was sitting on the couch in the living room when her husband led him in. "What do you want?" she asked, sniffling. She looked like she'd been doing nothing but cry for the past 14 hours.

"Just a few simple questions." He put his hands up in the air as if surrendering. He pulled his notebook out of his pocket and took a seat in one of the chairs across from the couch. "When was the last time you saw Riyuki?"

"A few weeks ago at a family dinner," Minoru answered softly. "She seemed to be completely normal. Said everything was fine."

"She wasn't depressed then?"

Both of them were silent for a few moments. "N-No. Why? Did she kill herself?"

"Someone poisoned her. Whether it was herself or someone else. Is there anyone who could possibly have had a grudge against her?"

"No one," Kiyomi spoke up, "Everyone liked her. Even her ex-boyfriends like you didn't hold anything against her." That wasn't helpful until Minoru spoke up with, "Suoh. Tamaki Suoh. Her ex-husband."

"What would be his possible motive?" he asked, though he already knew.

"She cost him 4 million yen. Need I say more?"

"No... No you don't need to say much more," Kyoya murmured softly, already trying to think of how the hell he was going to be able to take his best friend in for interrogation. "Thank you for your cooperation. I'll call if there's anything else I need."

– _May 30th – 11:27 AM – _

As Haruhi walked out of the principal's office she flipped open her phone and dialed Kyoya's number. He, being the quick man that he was, answered almost immediately. "Haruhi. Was wondering when you'd call."

She snorted. "Classroom's being taped off as we speak. Should I get Hikaru or Kaoru to run it?"

"No," he muttered distractedly, "No. You stay there. Look through the trash. The apartment's been secured as well with the roommate's consent. Get Hikaru and Kaoru to run the apartment. You take the classroom."

"Got it," she murmured, "And you?"

He sighed, a slightly strained sound over the phone. "I'm... heading over there to take Tamaki downtown."

Haruhi closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Told you. I'd like to be there for the interrogation, too, though if possible."

Kyoya sighed, sounding extremely tired. "Send the twins to the school then. According to the sheriff Mori's switching to night shift tomorrow. Don't think it'll hurt if we put him to work early on the apartment though. Go ahead and give him a call."

"Will do. See you in 10?"

"Correct." And then he hung up. Haruhi rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. They were just getting into deeper and deeper shit. First Kyoya's ex shows up dead, then it turns up that she was also Tamaki's ex-wife, now they were having to take Haruhi's ex and Kyoya's best friend in as a murder suspect.

The longer they kept up this weaving game the tighter the personal cloth was going to wind around their heads.

–

**A/N: And the plot thickens. This is fun. Really fun. Criss-crossing inner-relationship murder fun. Just my kind of game~ **

**Kudos to Raines, BlackestNight BrightestDay, and SisterFriend. **

**Might take longer to get another chapter for anything out. Last two weeks of school and I'm struggling just to catch up and keep up. Not to mention finals coming up (Greaaaaaat). **

**Renge might've been a little OOC. But hey. She's 31 now. She had to have grown up A LITTLE. **


	4. Chapter 3: Breaking Rules

_Of The Highest Degree _

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Chapter 3 – Breaking Rules _

– _May 30th – 11:28 AM – _

"Kaoru," she asked softly into her phone as she stood outside Riyuki's classroom, "Have the results from the stomach contents yet?"

"I was about to call Kyoya about it," he stated in surprise. She heard typing in the background and assumed that she was on speaker with Hikaru as well. "It's definitely arsenic that killed Riyuki Sachiru. No doubt about it. Traces are left still in her stomach."

The typing paused. "The killer probably assumed that all traces of the poison would be flushed out of her system. Arsenic causes urinary system frequency. In other words, she probably had to pee a lot," Hikaru muttered dryly. Haruhi nodded. That would have made sense.

"And they thought that would mean decreased chances of being caught," Haruhi finished, "Clever. Too bad forensics always finds a way." She ran a hand through her hair, kneeling next to the trash bin in the room. "Shit," she muttered. It was mostly empty, save for the candy wrappers and few bits of trash from the students that had been there this morning. "They took out the trash already. I'll have to talk to the principal about taking hold of the dumpster. Meaning, a ton of you lab techs will be on trash duty."

There was a collective amount of groans from the other side. She smirked. "Unless Renge and Hunny have other things to do it looks like we'll all be having a party. For now though, Hikaru and Kaoru, head to the school. You'll be processing the classroom."

"Do we have to?" they chorused with complete loathing.

"You two know that you're two of the best field agents there are. Get your butts down here."

"I'm a hacker, Haruhi. You have to have a computer for me to hack," Hikaru hedged, obviously trying to get out of it. Haruhi glanced at the computer that was sitting over on the desk in front of the classroom.

"There's a computer here. I'll bring it in with the dumpster. There might be a home computer too though. That one will probably be more helpful," she replied, frowning. "What're Hunny and Renge doing?"

"Renge is still identifying fibers," Hikaru muttered.

"Hunny's on break," Kaoru added.

"Both of you get down here. Yes, you have to. Just get down here and process the scene. Then Hikaru can work on the computers and Kaoru and Hunny can go through the trash."

"What about the apartment?" they asked simultaneously. She walked back toward the door where two officers were standing guard.

"Kyoya's starting Mori on the day shift early. I'm calling him next." She turned to the guards, putting at hand over the mouthpiece of her phone for a moment. "One of you come with me. The other one stay here and make sure no one disrupts the scene." They nodded, one of them following her as she left down the hall again.

"Ahh. Well... We'll be there soon," Kaoru grumbled.

"Just finishing logging the evidence so far."

"Alright. I'm giving the two of you 15 minutes." She snapped her phone shut with a sigh without waiting for a reply. She passed the secretary without waiting to be announced to the principal. Opening the door she was met the surprising sight of her partner standing in the office. "Kyoya?"

He looked over at her. "Haruhi," he acknowledged dryly. "Suits are securing the dumpster. I was just having a chat with Chutori-san." He had an annoyed edge in his voice.

"I won't allow you to disrupt our students and lower the credibility of our school by taking out one of our best teachers!" Chutori stated in a stubborn, hard voice.

Haruhi smiled wryly. "I'll take care of this Kyoya," she muttered, pushing past him to plant her hands on the desk in front of her. "Chutori-san," she started pleasantly, staring him in the eye, "You are aware that by taping off the classroom as you've so graciously allowed, your students have been disrupted already? You'd be helping us a great deal more if you allowed us to take in a person of interest as well."

"Come and get him after school gets out then," he retorted stubbornly.

"I will not hesitate to charge you with holding up a police investigation," she replied, a cold threatening edge to her voice. Behind her, Kyoya smirked. This was why Haruhi was a good lawyer. She was just as intimidating as he was sometimes.

"You can't do that."

"Try me," she whispered, glaring at him. A shudder went down his spine visibly. In all reality, she couldn't if she didn't have a warrant. But a few little lies never hurt anyone.

"Alright. But will you at least wait until his lunch break? It starts in 5 minutes," Chutori consented reluctantly.

"We can do that," Kyoya interjected from the door, "Thank you for your cooperation." He turned his eyes to Haruhi, motioning her to follow him. She shook her head though.

"I'll be up in a minute. I still have to call Mori," she mumbled, scurrying past him and out into the waiting hall where she dialed an unfamiliar number that had been texted to her by Hunny. "Kyoya, are you sure you can interrogate your best friend?" she asked softly as she waited for an answer.

"Just worry about the job, Haruhi. Don't worry about me. I've been doing this for 10 years. I was doing it before I met you."

– _May 30th – 11:35 AM – _

The bell rang, triggering the flow of students out of Tamaki's classroom and through the halls. Kyoya and Haruhi stood against the wall outside, waiting for the crowd to thin before slipping into the room where Tamaki was starting to prepare his lunch. "Tamaki," Kyoya said as they advanced toward the desk.

The blonde looked up. "Ahh! Bonjour, Kyoya! What brings you here?" he asked cheerfully, grinning. He looked past the raven-haired man and stared at Haruhi. "And Haruhi as well!" She felt her heart pound uncomfortably. Was it odd that she kind of missed this blonde idiot standing in front of her even though she had broken up with him 3 years ago?

"Tamaki, will you come with us please? We have some questions," Kyoya asked softly since Haruhi seemed to have lost her voice.

"Ahh. Of course! How long will it take though? My lunch break only lasts 45 minutes, after all!"

Haruhi and Kyoya glanced at each other. "Depends on how much your answers match up." The blonde shifted his eyes between the two of them. Haruhi shifted her eyes away from his. She felt ashamed for some reason. Horribly ashamed. Maybe she really should be working the potential crime scene downstairs instead of helping with the interrogation.

"Just let me call Riyuki to cover my class, just in case, then," Tamaki smiled at them and moved toward his classroom phone.

Kyoya closed his eyes. This was his ex-wife he was talking about and he didn't even know she was dead? Unbelievable. He really was the same as he had been in high school. "Tamaki. Riyuki's dead," he stated, with jaw set as he opened his eyes.

Tamaki set down the receiver of his phone. "W-What?"

Haruhi turned her back on Tamaki so she was facing her partner. "How did he not know?" she whispered, chocolate orbs boring into onyx ones. "It's all over the news... Surely he must have heard..." Kyoya shook his head, nudging her to the side gently.

"Riyuki's dead, Tamaki. Haruhi found her last night."

His eyes widened slightly with recognition. "Ahh. So it was her that they were reporting on last night?" Haruhi honestly thought that he looked like he'd been hit by a bus. Or a train. Or something else huge and moving at high speeds.

"Correct. Just come with us please. You can bring your lunch." Kyoya kept this curt and business-like. Like this wasn't his best friend he was taking in for questioning. Like it was just another _'person of interest.' _Haruhi avoided the eyes of both men as Tamaki gathered his things and led the way to the door. "You alright?" Kyoya asked softly, keeping his eyes straight ahead and speaking out of the corner of his mouth.

She sighed and nodded. "Yes. I'm... I'm fine." She paused for a moment in thought. "I'll meet you in the car. Going to check up and see if Hikaru and Kaoru are here yet. Don't leave without me."

Her partner nodded in consent as she broke away from him, heading down the side stairs so she could make her way to the English teacher's classroom easily. There was a crowd of students around the door, whispering. She sighed and pushed her way through. "Move along!" she called over the heads of countless teenagers.

A few of them scowled at her, one gathering the nerve to ask, "How the hell are we supposed to have class?"

She faked a smile in his direction. "I believe you'll be meeting in the gym. From there the principal has to have somewhere to put you. Besides, you all have lunch now don't you? So, move along. There isn't anything to see here."

With a collective amount of grumbling the crowd dispersed. She sighed and ducked underneath the yellow tape, meeting the sight of Hikaru and Kaoru working efficiently. "And how are things here?"

The two of them frowned at the same time and looked at each other. "Bad." Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at what they were currently looking at.

"Donuts?" she asked dryly.

"Donuts," they confirmed. "But there's something special about these donuts," Hikaru added.

"They came with a note from Tono," Kaoru muttered gravely.

"Meaning?" Haruhi asked blankly.

"They might have been what killed Riyuki," they chorused with worried frowns on their faces. She sucked in a breath. Great. Just great.

"Great. I was just about to go question him with Kyoya. Anything else?"

"Nope," the older mumbled.

"But we'll call if anything turns up," the younger finished. She shook her head and their entire deal of finishing each others' sentences and left the room in a hurry, nodding at the guards on the way out. She took off at a half-run, not wanting to keep Kyoya waiting for her in the parking lot too long.

When she finally reached the black SUV and slid into the front seat, she huffed and caught her breath briefly before leaning over to whisper in Kyoya's ear as he started the car, "Bad news. The twins found donuts in Riyuki's desk."

"And?" he asked in confusion.

"The note with them says they're from Tamaki. Could easily have arsenic in them." Kyoya's gaze shot to hers then to the rear-view mirror where he could see his best friend sitting in the back seat, twiddling his thumbs and looking very sad. Course, he'd just found out that his ex-wife was dead, so that was understandable. "You don't think he might've..."

Kyoya closed his eyes briefly and put the car in gear. "I don't know what to think anymore," he growled, stepping on the gas and tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

– _May 30th – 12:01 PM – _

Haruhi couldn't help but think how she would feel slightly odd looking into the interrogation room watching her ex being questioned by his best friend from behind the two-way glass. She sighed softly. This was a big personal mess. Really, she had half the mind to hand this case over to the night shift just because of how personal it was for Kyoya and her.

She shook her head and bared her teeth though, knowing full well that her partner would never give this case up. No matter how much she felt like they shouldn't be working this one, she had to bare with it. Because Kyoya was a stubborn mule that would not be convinced to move from his position.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when the raven-haired 32-year-old entered the interrogation room holding a file in hand. She'd been right. This was _incredibly _odd. "Tamaki, when did you last see Riyuki?" he asked softly.

"Work a couple of days ago," the blonde answered just as quietly. For once, he wasn't bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm, Haruhi noted dully. Death must be the only thing that seemed to subdue him.

"And where were you the day she died?"

"Home, work, home again at 4:30ish. Ask Shima and Yukito Warami."

"Did the two of you have any arguments recently?"

Tamaki closed his eyes. "Kyoya, I loved Riyuki. It was an arranged marriage, but I loved her. If you're in here questioning me it means that you have absolutely no clue who could have done it." She felt her heart clench a bit. He loved everyone he came in contact with. Even her, when she had chosen to let him.

"Just answer the damn question, Tamaki," Kyoya muttered, glancing over at the two-way glass where Haruhi was watching their every move with a careful, analytic brain.

"We did. A week or so ago. But it was nothing so big that I would _kill _her over." He looked distraught. Absolutely distraught. And she almost had to look away from the sadness that was clouding his normally vibrant blue eyes.

"What was it about?"

"She wanted me to cover her class so she could 'take care of some business' as she put it. She'd been having me cover her classes too much that week. I said no."

"You have no clue what business that was?" And Kyoya. He was being so detached. Maybe it was just a technique that he was using. So he wouldn't feel as if it were wrong to be doing this to the man that he'd called his best friend for 14 years. That had to be it. Even in normal interrogations he was never like this.

"None at all. And she wouldn't tell me." The two men stared hard at each other for several moments across the table in complete silence then Tamaki whispered, "I didn't kill Riyuki. I didn't even know she was dead until you came in my classroom."

"Someone did, Tamaki. Someone killed her. And right now, you have the most viable motive, seeing as she's cost you 4 million yen."

The blonde drew a shuddering breath, trying desperately not to break down in tears. How the hell could she be dead? It was illogical. She had always looked after herself. "It wasn't me. But I'll be glad to help you take down the bastard that did."

"I'd rather see what happens while you're in custody."

"Kyoya!" Tamaki cried. "I did _not _kill my ex-wife! Do you even have any evidence? How was she killed?"

"I can't divulge that information," he retorted coldly. Haruhi closed her eyes, pushing back the emotion that could start clouding her judgment if she let it. She'd had enough of this though.

She moved toward the intercom that led from where she was into the room. She drew in a quick breath and then pressed the button. "Kyoya," she stated, watching the glass as he turned, a slight glare on his glasses.

"I'll be back," he growled, standing and leaving the room only to burst into the adjoined one a moment later. "What, Haruhi?" He sounded pissed and she briefly remembered rule number 22. Which she had just broken. Of course, they'd been breaking rules ever since they had taken this case. Such as majorly breaching rule 10.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "He didn't do it. And you can't hold him for no reason. He can sue."

"And how would you know that? Are you telepathic now? Do you know something I don't?" he retorted harshly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Kyoya! Look at him!" she whispered furiously, staring him in the eye. "Look at him. He just found out that his ex-wife is dead. And Tamaki's always been one to wear his emotions on his sleeves. You know that. Do you really think that he'd be able to hide the fact that he committed murder if he did?"

He hissed out a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So we've reached another dead end, hmm?"

She shook her head. "Ask him... Ask him if any of their co-workers had something against her that he knew of. It might lead us somewhere if the stupid dumpster doesn't. Which will take days to process by the way."

Both of them sighed. Sometimes this job was more stressful than it was worth. After several moments of silence she opened her mouth and said very softly, "I want off this case."

Kyoya looked at her sharply, a completely unfathomable look in his eye. "No."

"I want off and I want to hand it over to the night shift."

"No, Haruhi," he growled.

"Why?"

"Why not?" he retorted.

She gave him a wry, sarcastic smile and then murmured, "Rule 10. Remember? You're too wrapped up in this. It's going to consume you."

"I'm not giving it to someone else."

She stared at him hard, complete anger and loathing pulsing through her. "Then at least have the decency to let _me _off before it consumes _me _as well," she hissed.

He laughed shortly. "You know I can't do this without you, Haruhi."

She glared at him. "I really, _really _hate you sometimes," she muttered, trying and failing to keep the everything she was currently feeling out of her voice. "Y'know... I should've quit the moment that you said she was your ex," she spat in addition, pushing past him and out the door. "It would've saved me a hell of a lot of... _shit_."

– _May 30th – 12:32 PM – _

Hikaru and Kaoru were back in the lab and starving after an hour of processing the classroom. They'd even gone as far as to take samples of fibers in her classroom for Renge to compare to those that she had found on Riyuki's clothes. That would rule out what was normal and leave only the suspicious.

They'd dropped the fibers off, thinking that for now they only had the evidence from the classroom to catalog. That was until Haruhi walked in looking mad as all get out and with jobs for them. "Both of you. With me. Now," she growled shortly. They looked at each other, sharing the same thought, _'Kyoya must've done something to piss her off.'_

The two red-heads followed their 'Boss' for all extensive purposes out of their lab with identical scowls on their faces. Where was their lunch break? Was there even such a thing since Kyoya had seemingly become possessed and dragged Haruhi into his evil devilish plot?

She led them to the evidence garage out back where they normally processed cars. Instead, there was a dumpster waiting for them. She grinned a huge sarcastic grin, exclaiming, "Guess who's going dumpster diving!" before throwing them both jumpsuits, rubber boots and goggles.

They groaned loudly. "Do we have to?"

"Yes. I'll be joining you later. When Kyoya's satisfied with how much he's tortured me and/or learned his lesson," she stated with a sickly sweet smile. They stared at her blankly as she turned on her heel.

Hikaru stumbled after her, finding a simple excuse to leave his brother in the dust. "Don't you have a computer hard-drive for me to hack into and process? I thought that's what you said on the phone!" She paused and turned her head toward him.

"Actually yes," she murmured thoughtfully then called over her shoulder, "Have fun, Kaoru! Hikaru, come with me."

Kaoru glared at them, opened mouth while his brother stuck his tongue out at him. He spluttered for a moment then found words to explain what he was thinking effectively, "Hikaru! You ass! No more shiatsu massages for you!" His twin blanched with a pout before continuing to follow Haruhi.

The younger twin glanced at the dumpster like it would eat him, suddenly very nervous about diving in that thing alone. He made a last attempt at escaping the monster, if only for awhile, with his next question that was directed at Haruhi, "Don't I at least get to _eat _first?"

"30 minutes!" Haruhi called over her shoulder, "Take out bag in the fridge in the break room marked with your name!" He quickly praised God that Haruhi wasn't as ruthless towards those that had done nothing wrong unlike her male partner. Or counterpart as he liked to call him. He scurried after them, abandoning the jumpsuit on a stool.

– _May 30th – 1:04 PM – _

Kaoru was very much enjoying the lunch that he hadn't spent his own money on. Hikaru was sitting next to him, his own lunch in hand and his eyes glued to a laptop screen. Haruhi was across from them, muttering obscenities under her breath as she angrily shoved her own lunch into her mouth.

Kyoya decided to pay them a visit, though he looked mad. "What the hell? Why does it look like that dumpster hasn't even been touched?" he exclaimed angrily as he stood in the doorway to the break room.

Haruhi glared at him. "Because it hasn't," she retorted snidely.

"Why not?" he growled. The twins smartly decided to let these two fight this one out.

"You can't deny us a lunch break, Kyoya," she deadpanned coldly, eyes narrowed at him, "Or are you going to claim the role of evil slave-driver and tell us that we don't get a lunch break for the rest of the week?"

"Someone should've been at that dumpster 45 minutes ago!"

"Hikaru and Kaoru were still at the school _45 minutes ago_. And _I _was in interrogation with _you_."

"Hunny? Renge? Mori?"

"Mori was at the apartment. Renge was working on fiber identification and Hunny was helping her," she stated, jaw set in anger. He couldn't tell them what they should be doing. They already knew what their duties were.

Kyoya stared at her, eyes filled with a slight fire. The twins observed this and seemed to sense the anger and tension between them as they attempted to slip out of the room, lunch finished. "I'm just going to... Go work on that dumpster," Kaoru muttered nervously while Hikaru grumbled something about hacking the victim's computers. Haruhi nodded at them vaguely before turning her eyes back at her partner.

"I told you I wanted out. Since you refuse, I'm just going to oversee instead of actually work the forensics," she said, feeling very rebellious.

His jaw clenched, pleasing her very much that she was actually managing to have some sort of affect on him. "Go work the dumpster, Haruhi," he growled.

"No. You do it," she retorted, staring calmly into his eyes while he tried to glare her into submission. She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. "I refuse to have anything else to do with this other than overseeing it."

"Haruhi," he sighed in frustration, "Why the hell are you being so stubborn about this? It isn't like this is your first personal case!"

She shot him a look. "You _interrogated _your _best friend _and my _ex_!" she exclaimed, getting to her feet so she could better argue with him. "And you were so fucking detached from it that you were even _threatening _him! I don't want to get sucked into whatever insane obsession you have with this case, Kyoya!"

"It's part of the _job_, Haruhi!"

"I don't care if it's part of the damn job! If a case makes me uncomfortable, I leave it to _someone else_! No one deserves to have memories from their past dredged up just because their partner refuses to have the decency to let them off! Rule 10, Kyoya! _Rule 10!_" With this final half-shout she pushed past him as he stood there, partly in shock.

"I'm still not letting Tamaki go until we have forensics to prove his innocence!" he called after her, scowling. She let out a loud angry huff that he could hear even though he was on the other end of the hall.

She was really that pissed at him, wasn't she? And what Godforsaken memories could this be digging up for her? As far as he knew, her time with Tamaki had been relatively happy. He scowled and turned on his heel, thinking of chasing after her to drill it out of her before deciding to let her cool off first.

Working with a pissed off Haruhi was never very good for a case. That much he'd learned from working with the stubborn woman for eight years.

–

**A/N: Rules 22 and 10, obviously referring to Gibbs 51 rules from NCIS. Therefore, I claim no ownership of them just like I don't claim Ouran. **

**22: Never, ever bother Gibbs in interrogation (Or Kyoya in this case)**

**10: Never get personally involved on a case. **

**More of them will probably pop up later. When I feel like adding them in. **

**I really need a life since I think I've memorized at least half of them... Rule 13 is Never, ever involve a lawyer if I remember correctly... Which Kyoya has broken on every single case that he's worked on with Haruhi as well. These guys are just a load of rule-breakers aren't they? (PS. I'm also to the point of obsession that I actually FOLLOW most of these rules myself. Aren't I special?) **

**Note to self: Never mess with a pissed Haruhi. Though it is slightly better than a pissed Kyoya it is still pretty damn bad. **

**Kudos to Raines, Suess MD, and lostinlife88! Thank you! **

**I just realized... That this chapter only covered 2 hours... DOH. I'll try to do better with shoving more juicy details/time in the chapters from now on. Next one's already half planned out. I also swear that I'll get something for LD out soon OTL;; **


	5. Chapter 4: Threats

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Chapter 4 – Threats _

– _May 30th – 1:09 PM – _

Haruhi was still visibly pissed when she entered the evidence garage. "Hey Haruhi. Come to help?" Kaoru asked cautiously, standing in the dumpster, attempting to pull a bag out and haul it over the side of the huge metal container.

"No," she growled, "I'm off the forensics of this right now. And right now, you're off dumpster duty. Run that damn box of donuts and prove that it _wasn't _Tamaki." She held out her hand to help the younger Hitachiin out of trash pile he was currently trapped in. He took it and swung one leg out, then the other, dropping to to the floor.

"What's going on with you and Kyoya?" he asked in a low voice as he stripped off the jumpsuit, revealing the clean clothes underneath.

She twitched inwardly at any mention of the bastard that had no decency. "Nothing," she spat.

"Liar."

"He's just being a stubborn bastard. Like normal."

"What'd he do this time?"

She drew in a short breath and glared at him. "Let's just say that this is getting a little too close for me." He nodded in understanding slowly, whispering, "I see," under his breath. It went without words that she wanted off and Kyoya wouldn't let her.

This had only happened once before. Most of the time he was lenient enough to let her go if she wanted it. The only other case that he hadn't let her off of had been one where her father had been involved. Her father had actually been a suspect and her partner hadn't had the decency to let her off then either. It had been 5 years since. And she had hated him just as much then as she did now.

"Just... Find something that proves Tamaki is innocent. Because he refuses to let him go until there's evidence to back it up. And Tamaki has a class to get back to," she muttered, pushing him toward the door after he had taken off his goggles and boots.

Kaoru nodded and saluted. "Yes ma'am!" She smiled sarcastically in reply and mumbled something about checking on Hikaru before taking off for the older Hitachiin's lab.

– _May 30th – 1:06 PM – _

Hikaru was sitting in his chair, frowning in utter concentration while he tried to crack the password on this stupid computer. Granted, he'd hacked into plenty of systems, but this one was just plain absurd. Finally, he typed in a sequence of keys that fit right in his head, felt right to his fingers, and pressed enter.

Low and behold, the welcome screen caved to a desktop wallpaper of a single photograph. A single damn photograph of Tamaki and Kyoya with a woman with auburn hair and striking blue eyes. Her arms were wrapped around both of their waists, her smile as cheerful as the blonde's on her left and the complete opposite of the bespectacled man's reserved smirk. The older Hitachiin almost felt as if he were intruding on his friends' personal lives by hacking this particular computer for clues.

But the woman in the picture was dead. And it was his job to find out what happened. He opened up the internet, having gotten her email information from Kyoya earlier. Her email was an easier password to break than the one that had been withholding her computer from him.

He scanned through emails until he came to one that piqued his interest. It was a rather threatening one. It even said _kill_ _you _a few times. Kyoya and Haruhi would definitely want to know who had sent it.

His fingers flew over the keys with practiced ease as they tracked down the sender of this email.

The screen flashed with a name and address after a mere minute. _Saki Wotoko. _He let out a sigh and wrote down the name on the sheet of paper that held his notes as well as a brief summary of the colorfully threatening email before turning back to the inbox.

He pressed print absentmindedly, out of habit. Because Kyoya always loved hard copies to throw at people in interrogation. The printer behind him whirred to life and spit out the sheet in a manner of seconds. He slipped it underneath the page he was writing on and continued scanning emails.

Another death threat came through. This one more interesting than the first and written differently.

_If you ever tell anyone what I've done I'll kill you, Sachiru. If you even _dare _to go to that cop friend of yours or the school board, I'll kill you. Don't even think about it because the second you do, I'll be waiting with a gun or some other weapon in hand. _

_And we wouldn't want you to get hurt now would we? _

It was completely sinister. The email address was anonymous too. That didn't stop him from hitting print and trying to track it though.

"Hey Hikaru," Haruhi muttered with a stiff edge, strolling up beside him and looking over his shoulder. He stayed silent, concentrating with surprising intent on the computer screen in front of him and the code that was flashing on it. She didn't understand it at all.

And then suddenly, all of it stopped scrolling. It just stopped and turned black, a single phrase appearing on screen. _Virus Established. _The computer shut off almost immediately. "What?" Hikaru asked incredulously, just as much in shock as the woman standing next to him. "_What? _It died on me! The computer fucking died on me! How the- Wait." He paused in his outrage, thinking back to the last email. The virus had to have come from the sender. And attempting to track them down had fried the hard drive.

"What?" Haruhi growled, feeling very unhappy and slightly pissed at the moment.

Hikaru swiftly turned around and pulled a piece of paper off the printer, showing it to her with flourish. "I give you, the death threat of our killer." Haruhi squinted at the page, nodding to herself.

"Tell Kyoya. He'll be _thrilled_," she grumbled.

"There's no name attached to this one though. The other one-" He slipped the copy of the other email from underneath his notes and held it up in front of her face. "-does. Saki Wotoko. Physics teacher at the school."

Haruhi couldn't help thinking that Kyoya definitely _would _be thrilled at being able to interrogate another unwilling suspect. And it was another teacher to tear away from their classroom. Perfect. Her expression turned sour.

"What's the frown about?" he asked as one of his own appeared on his face. "I'll get the computer back up. It might take me awhile though."

She shook her head, waving her hand. "It's not about the computer," she mumbled, "Ask your brother." And with that she turned to leave him to his own devices.

"Haruhi!" Hikaru called out. She pinched the bridge of her nose and turned back to him with a questioning, irritated look. "Remember that Kyoya's attached to this one too. He may be a stubborn mule, but he's only human. Probably just needs support."

"Whatever," she muttered, continuing to leave. _'Needs support, my ass,' _she thought sourly, _'He just likes being sadistic and torturing those around him.' _She shook her head inwardly. No use thinking about that bastard right now. In fact, she thought it would do quite good for her to just ignore him for the rest of eternity.

– _May 30th – 1:16 PM – _

Haruhi slipped through the door, causing the man who was sitting at the table with his head in his hands to look up. "Haruhi?"

She drew in a deep breath. "Did he refuse to let you go home?" she asked softly. Tamaki nodded carefully, eying her strangely. "Did you do it?" This time he shook his head.

"What's happening, Haruhi?" he asked, placing his head in his hands again. "How did Riyuki die?" She stared at him, trying to keep her emotions under wraps. She had left this man three years ago. She couldn't even remember why she'd done it. Slowly, she took the chair that was on the other side of the table and pulled it next to his, seating herself lightly.

"Hikaru and Kaoru are proving your innocence the best they can," she murmured, "I'm... trying to convince him to let you go home." She paused. Going against her partner would mean trouble, but Tamaki was completely innocent, she was sure of it. "She was poisoned, Tamaki. Arsenic."

The blonde nodded, a pained expression crossing his features. "Was... Was she having problems with the physics teacher Saki Wotoko?"

He looked at her strange. "Not to my knowledge..." he muttered, scratching his head and frowning. "She wasn't having problems with anyone really. Except maybe me, but we just got a divorce."

She nodded, her own frown lighting her face up. "And I know you didn't do it." She could feel herself starting to slip a bit the longer she stayed in the room. "I know you didn't, and I'm going to prove it. Don't worry you'll be able to go to your class tomorrow."

He smiled. "Thank you, Haruhi."

"You're welcome, Tamaki," she mumbled, returning his smile with a small one of her own.

"Haruhi," a voice came from behind her, sounding pissed and with their jaw set. She turned, coming to meet the glaring stare of Kyoya Ohtori. She threw him a fake smile. "What. Are. You. Doing?"

"Avoiding you," she growled in response, "And setting an innocent man free since you obviously _won't_." He glanced past her to his best friend, running a hand through his hair. He had to fix whatever it was that was driving between him and Haruhi. Otherwise their varying orders and opinions were going to tear the case apart.

"Dammit, Haruhi," he muttered, "Fine. Let him go. But if he does anything relatively suspicious he's coming back." He pointed at Tamaki. "Don't leave town." The blonde nodded solemnly and stood, slipping past the two of them. Kyoya closed his eyes briefly before opening them again to glare at her. "Why are you so set on making this more miserable then it has to be? And how long are you going to keep this up?"

She smirked. "You'll have to figure that our on your own."

– _May 30th – 2:34 PM – _

Kyoya and Kasanoda stood looking into the interrogation room where Saki Wotoko was sitting, tapping her fingers impatiently on the table in front of her. "Tell me again why Fujioka isn't in here instead?" Kasanoda muttered to him with a curious look on her face.

"Let's just say that we're both stubborn mules and she's being irrational," he replied with a slight bitter edge. "I'm going in." His temporary partner nodded as he headed out the door, entering the one next door only seconds later. "Saki Wotoko," Kyoya muttered, seating himself across from her and plopping the folder in his hand down in front of him.

"Can I please know what the hell is going on?" she replied irritably. "First two police officers kidnap me, then I wait in here for close to an hour. And I don't even know why."

He silently opened the folder and pulled out an autopsy photo of Riyuki's face. "Do you know her?" he asked softly, looking up at her eyes.

She was quiet, staring at the picture with her mouth open. "Riyuki Sachiru. She's a colleague of mine. She's dead?"

"Yes. She is. What was your relationship with her like?"

"We were... Just colleagues. Was she murdered?"

He ignored her question, pulling out the email that Hikaru had printed off. "This email," he muttered, "was received by Riyuki four days before she died. Our lab-tech traced it back to your home computer. Now, this sounds very threatening don't you think? Have some sort of disagreement with Riyuki that went too far?"

Her face was one of shock and partial disgust. She sighed and put her head in her hands, elbows resting on the table. "We did have a small argument a week or so ago. I thought she was having an affair with my husband. Naturally, I was angry and emailed her _that_. I was proved wrong and apologized to her yesterday."

He stared at her curiously, trying to see through her like Haruhi always seemed to be able to. His partner would know in a second if this woman was lying. He had the same skill but it wasn't like how Haruhi could do it. "You're sure about that?"

"Positive." She looked upset. But Kyoya had learned long ago that guilty suspects could easily fake it if they had to.

He let out a soft sigh. "Would you be willing to give your finger prints to rule you out then?"

She nodded slowly. "Anything. I didn't kill Sachiru-san," she mumbled. He nodded, calling the officer outside the door to come in.

"Get the fingerprinting kit," he muttered, glancing over at her, "Have Hunny run them against the prints found on the box of donuts." The officer nodded while Kyoya turned his gaze to her. "Do you know of _anyone _that might have wanted to harm her?" She shook her head. He ran a hand through his hair.

Great. Another dead-end suspect.

– _May 30th – 4:21 PM – _

After locking herself in her office for a few hours, finishing up paperwork, Haruhi pushed everything away from her and got up the energy to stand. She let out a soft sigh as she grabbed her coat. She was going home for dinner. Maybe she'd make the twins something too.

She wandered down to the lab where the twins were, Hikaru still trying to get the computer back up while Kaoru processed some trash. "How's that going?" she asked him, suppressing a yawn. She obviously needed more coffee. It was only 4:30 she shouldn't be so tired already.

"Prints were on the box, all the same, none in the system, and none are Tamaki's," Kaoru muttered, frowning at the pile of take out boxes in front of him. Any of them could have been part of Riyuki's last meal for Christ's sake! And there had to be tons more still in that dumpster! Apparently take out was a popular meal among teachers and students.

"In other words, Tono never touched them unless he wore gloves," Hikaru interjected quickly from where he was squatted on the ground by the clunky desktop that was Riyuki's home computer.

"Y'know... The handwriting on the note..." the younger twin trailed off. Haruhi held out her hand for it immediately. "It also has the same fingerprints on it that are on the box," he added, pressing the small slip of paper into her hand.

She knew immediately that the chicken-scratch that was written on this paper wasn't Tamaki's elegant handwriting. "It's not his," she mumbled, frowning. _'But it seems so familiar...' _She shook her head. "It's not his. He wrote me notes when we were dating. I'd recognize his handwriting anywhere. It just proves that he's innocent." Haruhi couldn't wait to go gloat to Kyoya.

"Great," Kaoru muttered with a huge grin.

"I was about to go home to get some dinner. Want me to bring something back for the two of you since you're so busy?"

Their identical grins were kind of creepy. "Oh! Haruhi's cooking! What a treat!" they exclaimed in unison. She had to smile.

"Alright. And Kaoru, as soon as you're finished with that snag Hunny and/or Mori to continue going through the dumpster, will you?" He nodded at the request but his grin turned into a slight grimace.

"Got it, Boss," he grumbled as Hikaru let out a squawk from being shocked by some wiring. Kaoru laughed at him briefly until his brother shot him a glare, holding his hand and muttering something about an evil, possessed computer under his breath.

– _May 30th – 5:47 PM – _

Haruhi was very satisfied with her dinner and with two large bentos and three smaller ones under her arms she walked back into the department building with something akin to a smile on her face. She popped her head into Hunny and Renge's labs on her way past them, calling, "Dinner in the break room!"

Hikaru was still attempting to rewire the computer when she reached his office. She sighed softly. "Hikaru, work on the work computer for a bit and worry about that one later. Like say... After dinner." He waved at her distractedly, connecting two wires and taping them together.

"Alright," he grunted, "I think that should hold it for now."

"Break room in a minute or two. Need to go tell Kaoru and Mori first." He nodded, scribbling some notes down on his notepad before heading in the opposite direction to await his lunch. It took her less than a minute to reach the evidence garage where Mori and Kaoru were knee deep in trash. "Clean up and head for the break room, guys!" she called over the music that was playing, "I made dinner!"

"Thanks, Haruhi!" Kaoru yelled back while stripping off his gloves and pulling his goggles off. Mori merely nodded at her, silent as always.

_Now _she could go to the break room and watch them all enjoy the meal that she'd prepared.

– _May 30th – 5:51 PM – _

"Hunny and Mori, hope you don't mind sharing. Same with Hikaru and Kaoru. It was easier to pack two big ones and the three individuals instead of five small ones," she mumbled distractedly as she set a big one in front of both the set of cousins and the twins while sliding one of the small ones to Renge.

"Thanks Haru-chan!" Hunny said cheerfully, already thinking about the cake he'd get to eat after his meal. She smiled at him in reply.

"Hey Haruhi," the twins asked simultaneously, "Who're the other two for?"

"Ahh..." She stared at the two. One she knew was for Nekozawa. The third though... She must've packed it subconsciously since she was used to Kyoya eating as well. She frowned, distinctly remembering that he hadn't eaten lunch either. "I'll be right back."

She scooped up the two boxes and carried them down to autopsy, plopping one on Nekozawa's desk. "Dinner's here if you want it, Nekozawa," she called to him from where he was bending over a dead corpse. He looked up and nodded briefly before she left.

She looked down at the last box in her hand. Really, she hadn't meant to get one for Kyoya too. She was still pissed at him. And frankly, it wasn't her job to make him eat. She sighed and cursed under her breath. Might as well pass it on. Better that he eat it than for it to go to waste sitting in the break room's fridge for who knew how long.

So she headed for her partner's office, really hoping that he wasn't there when she got there.

He wasn't, thank God. Haruhi set the box on his desk before grabbing a piece of scratch paper and a pencil off of it to scribble a short note.

– _May 30th – 5:55 PM – _

Kyoya was coming back to his office from visiting the sheriff's when he thought he saw a familiar head of brunette hair scurrying around the corner away from his office. He rose an eyebrow and walked in, half-expecting to find some sort of disarray left in Haruhi's wake. But all he found was a bento box and a note.

_Just because you're busy doesn't mean you shouldn't eat! Don't think this means that I'm not still pissed or that I'm working the forensics again. I am and I'm not. _

_-HF _

He smirked to himself. So she wasn't pissed enough to not care about his well-being. That was better than it normally would've been. She was _still _trying to shove food down his throat and was making sure that he ate. His stomach gave an uncomfortable growl as he remembered that he hadn't eaten since breakfast.

He gave into his appetite's whims very quickly, to say the least. And Haruhi's cooking was always worth it.

– _May 30th – 7:25 PM – _

Haruhi was still mad at him, that much he knew. And the only way he was going to get this case swinging correctly again was if he apologized. However, apologizing wasn't really his forte. Meaning, that he was about to swallow his pride. Just to say sorry and admit that he was affected by Riyuki's death to his partner of eight years.

Now he was standing outside her office, working up the courage to knock.

He tried the doorknob of her office, finding it locked, and sighed. "Haruhi!" he called through the door, "Haruhi, I know you're in there. Open up!" The woman on the other side remained completely quiet. He ground his teeth and swallowed his pride briefly, "I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry for forcing this on you!"

He glanced over at a girl, that he briefly recognized at the receptionist from the front hall, who was staring at him oddly. He stared hard at her. "Fujioka-san went home for the night, already," she stated, cocking an eyebrow at him.

Kyoya turned his eyes to the ceiling. Here he was, swallowing his pride to apologize and she wasn't even here. He sighed and thanked the receptionist, fishing his car keys out of his pocket and heading for the door.

He was solving this issue between them, _tonight_. Even if he had to do it later due to the fact that he still had work to do.

– _May 30th – 8:38 PM – _

Kyoya knocked on her apartment door. "Haruhi," he called through the door. On the other side the brunette was sitting on her couch trying to ignore him. He kept on pounding insistently until she couldn't stand it anymore. She threw open the door.

"What?" she hissed angrily.

He sighed and stared at her tiredly. "Rule 15," he stated softly, "Can I come in please?" She let out a huff and stepped aside for him to walk past.

"I wouldn't have to worry about rule 15 if you'd let me off," she mumbled, striding to the kitchen to get him the beer that he normally had while at her place. She popped the top off and carried the open bottle to where he had seated himself on the couch. "What do you want?"

He closed his eyes and leaned back. "I hate it when you're mad at me, you know that?" he muttered, a smirk coming to his face as he opened his eyes and gazed at her. She was glaring, making him sigh for the second time that night. "I'm sorry, alright? I'm sorry that I made you take this case because of my obsession."

Her face softened slightly as he took a swig of his beer. She walked over and sat next to him on the couch, quietly looking at him expectantly to continue. "I... I didn't want to go through it alone, Haruhi." She put her hand on top of his where it laid on the cushion. "I don't want to feel like I'm the only one that's affected by this... shit. And maybe I thought that forcing you to stay would mean that I'd have that support. I'm sorry." He glanced over at her, noticing the small smile on her face. "What?"

She shook her head, the smile widening slightly. "Nothing," she muttered, "Just... rule 6."

He threw her a tired, sarcastic smile. "Not among friends, Haruhi."

She rolled her eyes. "I take it, that you're staying on the couch tonight?" She suppressed the yawn that she'd been holding in all day again.

He nodded. "If you'd allow that after I was such a bastard," he muttered, taking another gulp of his beer and relishing the burn of the alcohol on his throat. "You can quit if you want to, Haruhi," he added softly.

She glanced back at him from where she was shuffling around in the hall closet for a blanket and pillow. "Thank you," she mumbled as she came back and handed them to him.

He nodded in reply, gratefully taking them. "And thank you. For dinner and this."

She smiled. "Go to sleep, Kyoya. You need it before you go too mushy on me." Throwing her a smirk he set his beer down on the table and set about converting her couch into a decent bed. This, of course, wasn't the first time he'd stayed the night at Haruhi's. And she had stayed at his several times. The difference was: he had a guest bedroom, she didn't. He supposed that a couch was better than a chair any day though.

"Night, Haruhi," he called in the direction of her bedroom. He heard a muffled, "Goodnight!" from her closed door as he reached up and turned off the lamp.

– _May 31__st__ – 2:29 AM – _

A strange scratching noise woke Kyoya. And though he would have liked to just growl softly and go back to sleep, he automatically reached for his gun and glasses which were lying on the table next to the couch. He blinked sleep from his eyes when he heard it again.

It was coming from Haruhi's kitchen and it sounded oddly like footsteps. She didn't normally get up for midnight snacks did she?

He stood abruptly, holding his pistol in front of him carefully as he inched toward the kitchen. The shuffling had stopped. And when he looked around the kitchen all that was out of place was the open window. He frowned, the thought that they might've gotten to Haruhi while he was asleep flitting into his mind briefly as he hurried to her bedroom.

She jumped awake when he opened her door. "Kyoya? What the hell?" she asked hoarsely, glaring at him profusely as she took in the sight of his drawn weapon. It made her falter slightly. "What happened?"

"Someone was in your kitchen," he muttered, "Window's still open. The footsteps woke me."

A frown came her to face immediately as she pushed back her covers and pulled herself out of bed completely awake. She followed him to the open kitchen window, sticking her head out before sighing and glancing back at him. "Put that thing away," she grumbled, gesturing to his gun. "Making me nervous. Whoever it was is gone now."

"Did they take anything?"

She looked around, pushing him aside lightly to check the rest of her house. Upon entering her bedroom her eyes landed on a piece of paper. She picked it up carefully. "Kyoya..." she trailed off as he snatched the paper from her, his eyes scanning over it quickly.

_Drop the case or you'll be next. _

–

**A/N: Ohoho! Lookie here what I got for you! And I managed to fit more than two hours in the timeline this time too! Yay me. **

**Rule 15:Always work as a team. **

**Rule 6: Never apologize it's a sign of weakness. **

**Kudos to: lostinlife88, BlackestNight BrightestDay, Raines, idontseepenguins, and Koharu Veddette. **


	6. Chapter 5: Sharing

_Of The Highest Degree _

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Chapter 5 – Sharing_

– _May 31st – 2:37 AM – _

_Drop the case or you'll be next. _

Kyoya's eyes shot to Haruhi's. "I think..." she mumbled, "That I'm going to stay on the case."

"You're sure about that?" he asked. This was one of those few times that it would be perfectly fine if she wanted off. His eyes were trained on her, hard with just a trace of worry flitting in and out. "Weren't you the one that wanted out?"

"No one scares me away, Kyoya. And weren't you the one that wanted me to stay?" she retorted lightly, biting her lip. She took another look at the note, frowning slightly. "It's... the same as the writing that was on the note for the doughnut box... I swear I've seen it somewhere."

"What I want to know is how the hell whoever it was managed to get in through that window, into your room to leave the note, and then back out without waking either of us up," he growled in a low voice.

"I dunno," she mumbled, her eyebrows still creased in a frown. "I've seen that damn handwriting somewhere. I know I have."

"Where, Haruhi?"

"I don't know! I just know that I have!" she exclaimed in frustration, running a hand through her hair and sitting down on her bed. Both of them had been completely ignoring the fact that she was currently in a tank-top and shorts until she realized that they were ridding up and pushed them down impatiently before returning her head to her hands.

He sighed and holstered his gun, seating himself next to her. "It's fine if you can't remember. For now..." He glanced at the clock that was hanging on the wall. "We have 6 hours left until we need to be in. Then we can get _someone _to run your kitchen." There was almost too much forensics for their 8-man team to deal with. "Put the note back where you found it and in the morning don't touch anything. I'll take you out to breakfast."

She yawned, nodding to herself as she replaced the note where it had been on her bedside table. "So, we'll worry about it in the morning," she grunted. He nodded carefully, noticing that she was very calm despite the fact that her life was being threatened. "Goodnight." She slid underneath her covers but he stayed planted firmly in her doorway. "What now?" she groaned.

"Haruhi, someone's threatening you," he said softly.

"And?"

"They broke into your apartment." She gave him this exhausted look. "Just... It'd make me feel better if you weren't in here alone. If they could break into your kitchen they could break into your bedroom and kill you while you sleep."

She sighed. "Are you saying that you'd like to sleep in here?"

He nodded, his eyes piercing into hers carefully. "It isn't like we haven't slept in the same bed before," he replied with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Her face turned blank at the several memories assaulting her brain.

"Fine," she grumbled, "But if I wake up with your foot in my back again, I'm kicking you out." He chuckled as he climbed into bed next to her. She curled up with her back to him while he spread out and turned off the light. "Goodnight," she mumbled sleepily.

"Goodnight, Haruhi," he murmured.

_May 31st – 7:28 AM – _

Haruhi felt warm. Warmer than she normally would. And she was the warmest where there was a slight draft on her face. She cracked her eyes open slowly, taking in the sight of Kyoya's sleeping face. She found his arm draped over her waist, holding her tight to his torso. She blinked a few times, body tensing slightly, then she relaxed, closing her eyes again.

At least it wasn't his foot in her back. And she hated to admit it but this was a lot more pleasant. She sighed and turned around carefully to look at the clock. 30 minutes until her alarm went off at eight. Meaning, she may as well get up now and shower before the Evil Lord woke up.

She moved to slide out of bed only feel the arm around her tighten and a head bury itself in her back with a small growl. She exhaled exasperatedly. "Kyoya," she whispered furiously, turning around with slight difficulty. She tried to pry herself out of his grasp but he only pulled her closer, pushing her head to his chest.

Now he was just trying to piss her off. "Kyoya! For God's sake! Let me go!" she grumbled into his chest, pushing against it. His nose pushed its way into her hair. She didn't know whether he was actually asleep now or not. Just in case he was she hissed, "I'm going to sue you for sexual harassment when I get free of you!" right before she gave up, angrily pushing her head against his chest.

– _May 31st – 8:00 AM – _

Her alarm went off loudly. Haruhi grumbled and Kyoya growled under his breath, cracking his eyes open to look at her wide ones. "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," she muttered sarcastically, glaring at him. "If you'd be so kind as to release me, it would be appreciated."

He let out a low grunt and pulled his arms back, turning over and seemingly going back to sleep. She rolled her eyes and pulled herself out of bed. "Don't... Eat... Anything," Kyoya grumbled.

"Got it," she mumbled without turning around.

"Don't even go in the kitchen."

"Understood."

– _May 31st – 8:32 AM – _

Haruhi stared at him. He was unbelievable, completely unbelievable. "Kyoya. Get up," she stated with jaw set as she stood in front of her bed fully dressed and ready for breakfast. He growled and ignored her. "Get up, dammit. You promised me breakfast. Unless you want me to go to the kitchen and eat some potentially _poisoned _food on accident."

He rolled over and gazed at her, groaning softly. "Did you call the twins?"

"Yes. They'll be here in half an hour after _they _eat. Mori will be on dumpster duty. Renge is still working on foreign fibers. I could work my own apartment with Kaoru. Hikaru needs to get that damn computer up. Something tells me that there was something on it that the killer didn't want us to know."

"Do that then," he muttered, sitting up and rubbing his eyes before snatching his glasses off the table next to her bed. He suppressed a yawn. "Give me a minute and then we can go drop by my place so I can change and shower. _Then _I'll take you to breakfast."

She sighed softly and sat down next to him. "Did you actually sleep at all?" she asked him quietly.

"I did," he muttered, "Very comfortably, thank you." He smirked at her in a way that made her think that he'd held her back against her will knowingly.

She pointed a disbelieving finger at him. "You were awake that entire time, weren't you?"

He merely shook his head a light chuckle pulling its way out of his throat. "Wouldn't you like to know? Though, I hope you still aren't planning to sue me. I am your partner after all." His smirk widened as her eyes widened in absolute fury.

"You're lucky that you're my currently permanent partner. Otherwise I'd have your ass in court already," she hissed angrily, glaring at him with her arms crossed over her chest.

He chuckled softly, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "Can you blame me, Haruhi?" he asked, onyx gaze piercing her chocolate one. She rolled her eyes and shook her head as he stood and brushed past her to get his shoes. "You can't tell me you didn't enjoy sharing the warmth."

She grumbled something inaudible under her breath and headed out the door with him following her a moment later.

– _May 31st – 9:00 AM – _

"Haruhi," Kyoya called out as she jumped out of the car. "Kaoru's got a gun if anyone..." he trailed off. She nodded, waving her hand impatiently. She knew exactly what he meant. If anyone tried to kill her.

"I'll call you if anything happens. Go do... whatever it is that you do," she muttered, giving him a look. He smirked and nodded at her. "An hour or two and we should be done." She turned and headed inside.

"You know, you should have called this in as soon as you discovered it," Kaoru grumbled from outside her apartment door, waiting for her to let him in. "It could compromise evidence since you decided to wait an extra six hours _and _both of you slept in the bed." He glowered at her.

"He took the couch," she defended quickly as she put her key in the slot and opened the door. She really didn't want to broadcast that she had allowed him to sleep in her bed when he could just have easily taken the couch out in the living room. She was still reprimanding herself to saying yes in the first place. "Also, did _you _want to get woken up at 2 AM?"

He snorted. "Sure, Haruhi. Sure. Still should've called it in."

"Hey! I didn't touch anything after we discovered it. Kyoya wouldn't let me eat anything or even enter the kitchen." He opened his mouth to retort but she just cut him off, "Can we just get to work please? They came in the kitchen window, somehow got to my bedroom and left the note without waking me, then woke Kyoya on their way out. Who knows what else in between."

"I don't believe that Kyoya would let you sleep in your room _alone _after a threat on your life," Kaoru grumbled. She gave him a look that told him to shut up and focus on the case as she pulled on her gloves. "Alright, alright. You take the bedroom and hall, I'll take the kitchen and living room?"

She nodded once and set out for the hall outside her bedroom, seeing nothing as she scanned the floor and walls carefully till she reached the bedroom. Her eyes were again drawn to the paper immediately. She placed a yellow marker next to it and snapped a picture before bagging it.

She frowned, still trying to place where she knew that damned handwriting. It was strangely similar to Kyoya's but it wasn't his, yet she still knew it from somewhere. She pulled out her cellphone, dialing her partner's number quickly. "Yes, Haruhi?"

"Do you know _anyone _who has handwriting similar to yours? It's driving me crazy."

He was silent. "That's what you called for?"

"Yes! Just tell me, dammit!"

"No. I don't know anyone with my chicken-scratch for handwriting. That wasn't my handwriting, Haruhi."

She sighed, frowning at the bag in her hand. "It looks like yours to me. And I know it from_ somewhere _I just don't know _where_."

"Call me... When you have something real," he muttered, hanging up on her. She scoffed lightly as she caught sight of a hair caught on the drawer. _'Hello. What's this?' _She picked it up with her tweezers carefully, placing it in its own little baggy. Granted, it could be either hers or Kyoya's, but more than likely it was their killer's.

She pulled out her print dust and brushed it across her bedside table, finding nothing. She checked the door way and the doorknob as well, finding several fresh ones. She pulled the prints carefully and carried them with her, taking pictures the entire time. She knew some would be hers and Kyoya's, but there would probably be the intruder's as well. A fiber of some sort was also caught in the wood of her door frame.

"Haruhi!" Kaoru called from the kitchen. She hurried out, carting her little baggies of evidence with her.

"What?" she muttered, squatting next to where he was on the floor by the window. He pointed to little spots of dirt and mud that were sprinkled between the doorway to the kitchen and the window. Inwardly, she groaned. "That would be from their shoes, hmm?" He nodded, staring her in the eye.

"And there's prints on the window where whoever it was probably pulled themselves through the window. Wonder if they match the ones on the box."

"Did you check the fridge and cupboards for prints, yet?"

"Not yet. Was going to do that next."

"Good. Nothing in the hall. But I found prints on the doorknob, a hair near the note, and a fiber of some sort on the door frame. Pretty damn messy for someone who sent a virus to the computer Hikaru was working on just to keep him from tracing the email," she mumbled to herself, frowning. Kaoru shrugged. "I suppose, since the bedroom and hall are finished, I'll do the living room as well while you finish up the kitchen."

"Got it, Boss," Kaoru replied, standing and taking his kit with him to the other side of the room. She sighed and stood as well. Striding toward the living room, she noticed that the dirt trailed to the coffee table and couch where Kyoya had slept. Her frown deepened as she took in his empty beer bottle. When the hell had he drunken that?

She snapped a few pictures of the dirt leading to the table then carefully picked up the beer bottle and took a small sniff. Nothing but alcohol, which she curled her nose up at. She set it down and took out her cellphone again. He answered after two rings. "What, Haruhi?" By the sound of his voice and the addition of grounding teeth, she figured that she had interrupted something relatively important.

"Kyoya, when did you finish your beer?" she asked, still staring at the bottle.

"I dunno. Probably last night or early this morning when you were still asleep," he muttered. She ignored the fact that he had probably been up and slid out of bed to go finish his beer without waking her.

"After the break-in then?"

"Most likely, yes. Haruhi, what does this have to do with anything?"

She brought her head to her hand. "Listen to me. If you feel sick _at all _go to the hospit-..." she trailed off, staring at the table and taking a snapshot of it. There was a scratch in the finish that definitely hadn't been there before. "Your gun was on the table right?"

"Yes. What's going on, Haruhi?"

She recovered from her partial shock and turned into the demanding one. "Whoever was in here, might've tampered with your gun and your beer," she said quickly, "If you feel sick or off at all go to the damn hospital, you hear me? And get your gun checked for malfunctions."

"What...?"

"For God's sake, Kyoya, just do it. They may have left the note for _me _but that doesn't mean that _you _still aren't in danger."

"Fine, fine," he grumbled. "Are you almost done?"

"Almost," she hedged, following the deteriorating dirt track away from the table and to the hall and taking pictures along the way. "Just... Arsenic messes with your digestive tract mostly. Ask Nekozawa for the exact symptoms. If you have any just go to the hospital."

"I got it, I got it," Kyoya grunted, "Can I get back to what I was doing now?"

"Of course. Just watch yourself. You aren't invincible just because you're a cop."

"Goodbye, Haruhi." He hung up quickly.

"Trouble?" Kaoru asked, standing behind her.

"Perhaps," she mumbled, eyebrows creasing further. "Dirt trailed over here before heading to the bedroom. Kyoya's beer and gun were both on this table. Someone could've spiked his drink or messed up his gun."

"I see," he muttered, "Well. There were prints on the fridge handle and cupboards. Most likely they'll be yours though. There wasn't any dirt on the other side. I think we're done here."

"I agree," she said softly, "Let's go."

– _May 31st – 9:42 AM – _

"Hunny, can you run these prints and this hair?" Haruhi asked him as she slid up next to him. He glanced over from where he was working with Renge.

"Sure, Haru-chan!" he said cheerfully, taking the small packet of them from her.

"Some of them might be mine or Kyoya's but they're from my apartment and he stayed there last night. We're interested in any others that come up," she mentioned softly. Renge glanced over with narrowed eyes. Haruhi noticed. "Have you got anything, Renge?"

She sighed, shaking her head to get herself back in the correct mind-set. "Not quite finished yet but so far none of them seem out of the normal."

"Haru-chan," Hunny asked quietly, "Are you and Kyo-chan alright now?" She smiled at him and nodded. "Good. Things don't work right if we don't all work together," he murmured intelligently. She gave a slight nod in agreement.

"By the way, Renge," Haruhi added offhandedly as she headed to the door. "He took the couch. So there's really no reason for you to be jealous." She just barely caught Renge's open mouth out of the corner of her eye and smirked just a little.

– _May 31st – 10:21 AM – _

Haruhi was waiting for him with full evidence reports and logs of their investigation so far when Kyoya entered his office. He stared at her for a moment, trying to place why she was here. "Feeling alright, Kyoya?"

"Fine," he muttered dryly, looking at his office chair and then back at her with narrowed eyes. No one sat in _his _office chair in _his _office unless they wanted to get their ass handed to them on a silver platter. "What're you doing in here?"

"Merely coming to visit," she stated, tongue-in-cheek as she tried not to chuckle at his obvious irritation. "And I brought you these." She handed him the folders in her hand as he strode toward her. "Full evidence report and log so far. One of us had to get the paperwork together and I figured I'd have to be the one to do it since _you're _still behind on _last _case's."

He diverted his eyes quickly. "You are the lawyer," he muttered.

"And I finished the paperwork from the last case for you yesterday when I was locked in my office avoiding you. Aren't you lucky?"

He seemed to sigh with slight gratitude. "Thank you," he said, smirking at her.

"You're welcome."

"Now get out of my chair."

"Nope. You're just going to be headed right out the door again. Look in the folder on the top." She waited while he flipped open the front and glanced over the page.

"They identified the intruder," he stated, raised eyebrows. "Meaning that the prints weren't the same as the ones on the box."

"Bingo. I got a warrant for his arrest for breaking and entering anyway. Let's go," she murmured, standing, turning him, and pushing him out the door in front of her.

"You did all of that while I was trying to narrow down suspects at the school?" he asked in disbelief.

"I'm just about as good as you aren't I?"

"Yeah," he muttered sarcastically, "A real junior investigator." She shot him a glare which he chuckled at lightly.

"Did you get your gun checked?"

Kyoya nodded once. "No defects or malfunctions. And I haven't been feeling sick. Perhaps they just observed that I was there?"

She snorted. "Perhaps. I wouldn't disregard the theory that there might be more than one person in on this though." They were approaching the front doors. "Anyway... Where ever this guy leads us, it should be good watching him squirm." Her smirk mirrored his.

"I'll be sure to make that enjoyable..." he trailed off as he pushed open the door. Their eyes were assaulted by the flashes of cameras while millions of questions attacked their eardrums. "What the hell?" Kyoya growled as a reporter shoved her mic under Haruhi's nose and asked, "What are you doing about the threats against you, Miss Fujioka?"

Haruhi shot him a bewildered look as he seethed slightly. "No comments," he stated loudly, pushing his way through the crowd while holding onto his partner's arm tightly. They reached his car after escaping the rabid reporters, sliding into their respective seats.

"How the _hell _did they know about that?" Haruhi exclaimed, resting her elbow on the door and massaging her forehead with her fingers.

"I have no clue," he growled, "But _someone _is going to pay for this. Where are we going?" Sticking his key in the ignition, he started up the SUV quickly and pulled away from the curb.

"26th." He stared at her for a moment before turning his eyes back to the road. "Yes I know it's three streets over from my place. That just gives us more of a reason to think that he's the intruder."

"What's his name again?"

She sighed. "Didn't you read the report? Arashi Hirota. He's run into some trouble before when he was about 15. 17 now." Kyoya was staring straight ahead, his jaw set slightly. "Something wrong?"

"Who're his parents?"

"Aren't any listed. Says he lives with an older friend. Why?"

He took a deep breath, thinking hard about something. "Arashi Hirota. Age 17. Disowned by his parents when he was 14. Otherwise known as Arashi Sachiru AKA Riyuki Sachiru's younger brother," he muttered. She knew he hadn't even looked over the full file. Her mouth fell open.

–

**A/N: Wonder what'll happen next. (No not really. I **_**know **_**what's happening next. **_**You **_**however are a different story.) Yeah... You guys enjoy that fluff I slipped in there. And it would just figure that Kyoya would be that much of a bastard. (I say that with much love by the way) **

**I'll get LD out next I swear. (Or maybe not depends on how lazy I decide to be.) **

**Kudos to: idontseepenguins, BlackestNight BrightestDay, lostinlife88, CloudyBlueSkies, BunniTrulove. **


	7. Chapter 6: Addition

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl_

_Chapter 6 – Addition_

– _May 31st – 10:44 AM – _

Kyoya pounded on the apartment door when they got there. "I used to come visit him with Riyuki," he muttered under his breath, "If he was in that apartment, he saw me there. He should've known better." He was partially angry at himself just as much as he was angry at Arashi. The door opened to reveal a man about 22-years-old with red hair and blue eyes. Obviously a foreigner, but he spoke perfect Japanese.

"Can I help you?"

Kyoya flashed his badge quickly. "Tokyo PD. Is Arashi Hirota here?"

"No," the red-head answered carefully. "He hasn't been home since yesterday. Is something wrong?"

"We have a warrant for his arrest."

"On what charges?"

"Breaking and entering," Haruhi interjected quickly. Kyoya shot her a look. She just looked ahead passively.

"He stays out all night a lot. He'll probably be back later." He looked nervous. The raven-haired male nodded his head while the brunette closed her eyes. "I can call when he gets home if I get a number." He was staring at Haruhi, who opened her eyes again and gave him a disgusted look. She was 9 years older than him at least.

Kyoya shoved his card under his face. "Mind if we look around a bit anyway?"

"Yes, I do mind," he grunted coldly, "Leave. I'll call when Arashi gets home."

Haruhi sighed and pulled on Kyoya's sleeve. He shot the younger man a look before turning and following her away. "Kyoya," she said softly, "I have a bad feeling. About Arashi."

"Trust me. I know," he mumbled in reply, opening her door for her before striding to his own. "Well, where to now?"

She was looking out the window, up at the apartment. "Pull away from the curb but stop at the end of the block and come back around," she murmured, a frown on her face. Kyoya nodded and did as she said. When they came back around she had her head ducked to look out his window. "He's leaving. I bet you he knows some inkling of where Arashi is."

"I would bet you're right," Kyoya muttered, "Either that or he's doing something illegal himself."

"Follow him."

"Which way? One or two?" She gave him a sarcastic look. "One, it is then. He'll never see us." She nodded.

– _May 31__st__ – 11:13 AM – _

"Nothing," Kyoya growled as they came to a stop back in front of the apartment after following Arashi's roommate to the store and back. "Absolutely nothing."

She heaved a sigh and picked up his radio, pressing the side button. "Be on the look out for an Arashi Hirota AKA Arashi Sachiru. Auburn hair, hazel eyes, about 5 feet 10 inches, 17-years-old."

He gave her a searing look. "You aren't allowed to do that, y'know."

"You aren't either. You're driving," she retorted snidely.

He rolled his eyes and opened his mouth only to be interrupted by a voice coming from the radio with static-like quality, "Person matching description of Hirota with us right now. Alley between 28th and 29th." Haruhi and Kyoya stared at each other.

"On our way," Haruhi muttered into the device as Kyoya sped down the block. They found the police car sitting outside the alleyway. He pulled up next to it, turning off the car before letting himself out with his partner on his tail. Much to their dismay there was yellow tape blocking off the entrance. They bi-passed it easily with a flash of Kyoya's badge though. The tape only meant one thing.

"Oh no," she groaned softly as she stared into the face of Arashi Sachiru.

He was lying on the ground with a bullet hole through his chest. Eyes wide open, the t-shirt and vest he was wearing stained with his blood Kyoya ran a hand through his hair and turned around, unable to look at him. "Dammit," he growled, "Dammit, dammit, dammit." He wanted to kick something. He really wanted to kick something or _someone_.

"Kyoya," she murmured with sympathy laced in her voice, "Are you ok?" Her hand fell on his shoulder.

"I'm fine," he stated bitterly. "He wouldn't have been Riyuki's killer anyway. She did more for him than their parents ever did. He has no motive." She took him by the arm and dragged him back down the alley toward their car.

"I wasn't talking about the case," she mumbled, "I was talking about are _you _ok? You knew him, Kyoya. Just like you knew Riyuki."

"I'm _fine_, Haruhi," he replied more forcefully.

"Alright," she said skeptically, "Remember that my couch is always free though."

He nodded once and pulled out his cellphone. "Calling Nekozawa. Your kit's in the car. Process what you can." Haruhi gave him a searing look before leaving him to his own devices with a soft sigh. He would talk to her when he was ready. For now, she had a scene to process. And this one would be way more informational than Riyuki's had been.

She pulled out her camera, snapping pictures of the body before, and tucked it under her arm to pull on her gloves. She knelt down slowly. This was two Sachirus for the same case. Two bodies. It was more than she wanted or needed from it. Who knew how many there would be by the end of it.

She fished in Arashi's vest pockets and pulled out a wad of cash. "Holy crap," she muttered under her breath. She counted it quickly. _'Who carries 20,000 yen in cash?' _she thought incredulously. It could be from her apartment, but she rarely ever left cash just lying around. She rarely ever used cash at all besides loose change. Let alone _that _much.

She rolled the body carefully. The damn bullet was a through-and-through. Meaning that she had to find the damn thing embedded in the wall somewhere. Great. Bullet hunting was her least favorite part of this job.

She jumped when she heard a voice behind her. "Nekozawa's on his way."

"Kyoya! Jesus Christ!" she exclaimed, glaring up at his smirking face while trying to get her heart rate under control again. "Trying to give me a heart attack?"

He ignored her and asked, "What do you have?"

"I have 20,000 yen in cash in his front pocket, a pool of blood, and the knowledge that we have to go bullet hunting. You?"

"Bullet casing a bit closer to the entrance. He was probably shot at short range," he replied, squatting next to her. "Arashi... Never carried cash. And he was in your apartment. He was into drugs not theft."

"So... He didn't kill himself. And he mysteriously has a huge wad of cash. Someone killed him after he was in my apartment."

"It looks like he was heading home."

"Y'know," Haruhi muttered softly, "He might've been paid to break in and leave that note. That would explain the cash."

"But why the hell would they leave the money?"

"Desperation murder?"

"Meaning he would have to know something the murderer didn't want him to know."

"Maybe... Arashi saw you sleeping in my apartment, knew you were investigating his sister's murder and the contents of the note and put one and two together."

"He confronted him about it. Killer kills again to keep the secret."

"Exactly. But it won't be a secret much longer. Now, help me find that goddamn bullet. It's gotta be in the wall somewhere," she mumbled, starting to scan the walls carefully.

He sighed softly. "Based on the position of the body in relation to the casing," he muttered to himself, walking to the casing only a few feet away. He walked forward in a straight line toward the victim slowly, stepping over it cautiously when he reached it. Finally he stopped when he reached the wall about a foot away from the corpse. "It's got to be somewhere along this stretch." He spread his arms along a two-foot span. She nodded, looking with him.

"I doubt it'd bounce off. The velocity would crack the stone..."

"Got it," Kyoya said quietly, pointing at a small bullet that was partially embedded in the stone wall about 5 feet up. She smiled with a pair of tweezers ready to pull it out. Haruhi plucked the bullet out, smirking.

"What's that look like to you? A 9millimeter?" she asked, holding it up slightly to the light.

"I'd say that's about correct," he replied, looking at her and back at the bullet again with a smug look on his face. "I'll check which kind of gun exactly and run records of registered 9mils when we get back." She nodded, snapping a picture of the bullet and the hole it had come from as well as the slight blood splatter. "You ready?"

"Yeah. I think so," she murmured, shifting her gaze to him as she placed the bullet in the little container he was holding out to her. He screwed on the black top on and turned toward the car with her in tow. They passed Nekozawa on the way there. "Gunshot wound to the chest. Should be a fun one for you," Haruhi called. He cackled softly. She suppressed a shudder and slid into the front seat of Kyoya's SUV.

– _May 31st – 11:58 AM – _

"Haruhi, will you please run the evidence from Arashi's murder?" Kyoya asked tiredly. "Hikaru's busy with the computers, Renge still has the clothes, Kaoru and Mori are doing the dumpster, and Hunny's running finger prints."

"What about you?" she snorted.

He closed his eyes. "I'm... Will you just do it, please?"

She gave a soft huff before sighing. "Fine," she muttered, "Fine. But you owe me lunch." He nodded in consent as he turned back to his computer. "I feel like fancy tuna today, by the way." Her eyes twinkled as she left his office and went toward the twins lab where she could properly use her forensic skills.

"Hey Haruhi," the twins chorused as she walked through the door. She gave them a tired yawn in response. It was only noon. She shouldn't be so tired. She'd even had a good night's sleep last night, despite the extra body in her bed. Hikaru was working on the computers still while Kaoru ran tests on take out containers and coffee cups from the dumpster.

"Kyoya's got me running evidence from Arashi's murder," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes briefly before blinking.

"Well... That's better than my job," the younger twin grumbled, "How often do these teachers go out to eat? And why do they _all _eat take out? And most of them are from the same damn restaurant the victim ate at."

"Could've been the killer planting boxes to confuse us."

"But the donuts remaining in the box were laced with _high levels _of arsenic. You'd think that would cause it to be written off as taken care of."

"Her body would have automatically tried to dispose of it, Kaoru. Extra exposure increases chance of death," she muttered, taking a magnifying glass to Arashi's clothing after lying them down on the table in front of her. She picked a small thread off with tweezers, holding it to the light. "Is that... aramid?"

Hikaru and Kaoru both looked at her with odd looks. "Bring it here," Hikaru muttered, motioning over to a microscope. He shuffled around in a cabinet until he found the aramid sample they had on file for comparing. He put both of the fibers on a slide and pushed them under the small scope. "My god. Haruhi, you've been doing this job for too long." He turned back to his computer.

She scooted in front of the scope and looked in it. Identical images met her eyes. "Not too bad," she said to herself, pleased. "His t-shirt is polyester. Meaning that his killer got close enough to brush his flame-retardant clothing on him. And given the winkles where it was found I'd say there was a bit of a fight."

Both twins were silent. Then Kaoru said, "Who the _hell _wears cut-proof and/or flame-retardant gloves on a regular basis?"

"Someone who works with chemicals, fire, glass, or metal on a regular basis," Haruhi muttered. She scratched her chin. "That leaves the chemistry, metal-smiting, and ceramics teachers at the school..." She picked up her phone quickly and called her partner. He answered on the third ring. "Chemistry, metal-smiting, and ceramics."

"What?" Kyoya asked incredulously.

"Teachers who teach those subjects are viable suspects. As well as anyone who has access to cut-proof or flame-retardant gloves. There was an aramid fiber on the front of his t-shirt."

"Got it," he muttered, hanging up. She heaved a sigh and pulled her fiber of the slide, pushing it into a little baggy and turning back to the clothing. The right sleeve was partially torn, perhaps from a struggle. She snapped a picture of it.

"That's all I can tell there is," she grunted, ignoring her stomach's small gurgles of hunger. She was hungry. And it was about time for lunch. She briefly wondered if Kyoya had even been paying attention when she'd said she was in the mood for fancy tuna. She sighed and pulled the bullet and casing from the bag, screwing off the tops of their containers and plucking them out with gloved fingers.

Mori wandered in at that moment, carting a few more take out boxes for Kaoru, who glared at them as they were sat on their table. "Hey Mori," Haruhi mumbled.

"Haruhi," he acknowledged in return before turning to leave.

"Lunch hour whenever you want to take it."

"Okay."

She'd only known Mori and Hunny for about 5 years when they'd joined the team that had consisted of Hikaru, Kaoru, she, and Kyoya at the time. Renge joined 6 months later and Nekozawa was the head coroner for the entire department so he'd been there before she'd even started working with Kyoya.

She always had to laugh at herself when she thought about her first case with her partner. He'd been stubbornly sticking to Rule 13 and tried to leave her out of everything due to the fact that she was a lawyer. However, he'd quickly learned that Rule 15 overruled that statement and that she had just as much forensics knowledge as law. He'd been such an arrogant bastard back then.

Oh wait, he still was.

Haruhi set the bullet down carefully and dusted it for prints regardless of the fact that it was pretty damn banged up. As expected, nothing came up. Upon dusting the casing however, she found a few which she tape-lifted and smirked at. "Oh the wonders of prints," she muttered under her breath.

– _May 31st – 12:18 PM – _

Kyoya went down to autopsy after he got a short break to gather his thoughts. Two murders in three days, both from the same family, both he knew, and both by the same killer most likely. Great. Just great. "Defensive wounds on both his wrists," Nekozawa commented dryly, turning the bruised wrists carefully.

"Of course. He practically lived on the streets," Kyoya grumbled, not at all pleased to be having to look at the body of another friend. At least this one wasn't cut open yet though.

"These are recent and right before death."

"So he did fight with his killer," the raven-haired male muttered under his breath. "Meaning, mine and Haruhi's theory is probably correct."

"Ohtori, there was something gripped in his hand. It's a piece of paper." He looked up at the creepy 31-year-old. "It's hard to read it due to the bit of blood, but perhaps you or Fujioka could pull something from it." Kyoya nodded, murmuring to himself under his breath.

"I'll take it to Haruhi." He was handed a small plastic bag with the paper carefully slipped inside. And then she'd probably want lunch too, knowing her. It _was _almost 12:30 though. He couldn't very easily let her go home to eat either. Her apartment was still a crime scene. Which also meant that she'd probably have to stay with him tonight. Wonderful.

He pushed open the doors to the morgue and headed for the elevator once more. Hopefully Haruhi had found something besides the fiber. And if the fiber was really all that relevant, than they might just have a few more suspects to look at.

– _May 31st – 12:26 PM – _

Haruhi glanced up from her work of lifting fingerprints from the money when Kyoya walked through the door. "Are you here to bring me my lunch?" she asked with a cocked eyebrow.

He smirked. "Not quite. I have something else for you to run." She let out a soft groan.

"Kyoya, the twins have already gone home to eat. I let Mori and Hunny off as well. Why don't I get a break?"

"I never said that you didn't," he murmured bemusedly. "You'll run that-" he pointed at the plastic bag with the paper briefly, "-after we eat." She sighed with relief and stood up eagerly. She was really hungry, her stomach gurgling as if to make the point. She grabbed her coat. "That hungry?"

"Yeah. I haven't eaten since 8:45 if you hadn't noticed. I'm human. Unlike _some _people," she retorted with a pointed look in his direction. Then she added in a mumble under her breath, "Mr. I-skipped-lunch-yesterday."

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and bumped her jokingly. "I only skipped because you weren't around to nag me to eat. Miss I-was-pissed-and-ignoring-my-partner-yesterday."

Haruhi shot a glare in his direction as they exited her lab. "I was _not _ignoring you. I was angry at and _avoiding _you. There's a difference."

After a short barking fit of laughter, he answered with a quick. "_How_?"

"Simple. Ignoring requires someone talking or doing and then being ignorant toward what they're saying or doing. Avoiding is not wanting to be in the presence of a certain person and then acting on that desire by avoiding the person at all costs," she explained with a small smile on her face.

He snorted. _'She'd probably try to explain the difference between friendship and love in the same manner,' _he thought with slight amusement. She was looking at him oddly but he just shook his head.

"You never cease to amaze me, Haruhi," he murmured as they passed his office. He popped in quickly to grab his car keys, badge, and gun. Then they were on their way once more, joking and bumping each other like they'd never fought in the first place.

– _May 31st – 12:39 PM – _

"Kyoya," she muttered quizzically as he came to a stop in the parking lot of a restaurant that was fancier than they normally would have eaten at. "Why are we here?"

"You said you were in the mood for fancy tuna didn't you?" she replied with a small smirk on his face.

"But you could have just gone to the Sushi Diner on 9th," she grumbled with a frown. "Can you even afford this place?"

"Haruhi," he said bluntly, "My father and _both _my brothers are doctors. I'm a top murder investigator. You're a top lawyer and forensic scientist. I think I can afford it. And if I can't _we _can."

She mumbled something about rich bastards and climbed out of the car reluctantly. She really wouldn't have eaten somewhere like this normally. And normally he wouldn't have wasted the money to either. Especially not in the middle of a case. Even more importantly, in the middle of a case as high profile and personal as this one was. She narrowed her eyes at him briefly. "Why did you want to come here instead?"

"Thought it'd be a nice change," he replied softly. "And it's also a nice distraction. If only for awhile."

"We're going to be talking about the case the entire time, aren't we?"

"Probably, yes."

"And we can talk better without being overheard with a bunch of noise."

"Exactly."

She briefly had to curse his logic. Take Haruhi to a fancy restaurant and use the excuse of there being a lesser chance of them being overheard. Sure-fire way to get her to agree. Even if she got roped into paying for half. Of course, the food would probably be worth it.

It was then that she realized he had somehow gotten her inside and sat her down. And now she had a menu in front of her. She resisted the urge to glare at him as she perused the selection. She winced at the high-priced tuna. "You're paying if I remember correctly," she muttered under her breath, "Good. I'll be sure to cost you a good chunk for dragging me here."

He chuckled softly under his breath. "Order whatever you please. Just remember that you're paying tomorrow." Her face paled slightly. "And if you cost me _too _much I'll make you pay for the rest of the week."

"On second thought I think I'll stick to the tuna," she mumbled dejectedly. Leave it to him to rain on her parade. She set aside her menu and sipped at the water that had magically appeared in front of her.

"That's what I thought," he murmured softly, looking over his choices for himself.

"Now, I assume you looked up registered 9mils. And discovered which one it was exactly?"

"Correct," he replied, "M-9 Beretta. I didn't get around to looking them up but I left a note on the twins' desk for them to look it up when they get back from lunch."

She sighed exasperatedly. "You're going to overwork them." He smirked and set down his menu, having made his choice. "Seriously. You are. Kaoru's about to tear his hair out with those damn take out boxes."

"Anything found in the take out boxes probably won't be relevant anyway," he replied softly.

"Extra exposure to arsenic increases chances of death," she reminded pointedly as a waitress wandered over with a slight twinkle in her eye. Haruhi prepared to be ignored and slightly insulted as she often was when she went to lunch with Kyoya.

"Are you and your... girlfriend ready to order, Sir?" the peppy woman asked cheerfully. Haruhi stared at her then looked at him.

"I'm not his-"

"Of course we are," he interrupted quickly, giving her a look. "I'll have the sashimi and a lemonade. Haruhi?"

She looked at him oddly for a moment then muttered, "The tuna rolls and a cup of coffee please." The waitress nodded quickly, writing down the order and taking off toward the kitchen. "Why didn't you say that I'm not your girlfriend?"

"Would you rather be ignored and insulted by a waitress that I'm surely not going to take interest in anytime soon?" he retorted snidely. She grumbled in reply. "Anything else besides the aramid?"

"Prints on the money and the bullet casing. Computer running them as we sit here."

"Wonderful," Kyoya murmured, truly pleased with the progress they'd made. "And when we get back, that paper I left with you. Nekozawa found it clutched in Arashi's hand. I want to know what it is."

"I'll work on it when we get back."

– _May 31st – 1:35 PM – _

The twins had seemed to move out of their lab and into a different one when Haruhi returned, in what she could only see as a way to give her a better way to concentrate. "I'll be back in about 10 minutes," Kyoya mumbled.

"Kay," she replied distractedly as he turned and left. She turned her gaze to the wad of money that was lying on the table in front of her, still waiting to be finished printed. That probably should be finished with before she started on the paper.

–

**A/N: I know that I said I was going to get LD up. But I'm so stuck that it's not even funny. I even know EXACTLY what's going to happen. I just can't seem to write it correctly. You can thank the wifi that I finally got to work that's here for this though. (Even if the connection REALLY SUCKS.) **

**Ways one and two are obviously referring to the two ways from Rule 27: Two ways to follow: – First way, they never notice you, – second way they _only_ notice you. **

**Rule 13: Never, ever involve a lawyer.**

**Rule 15: Always work as a team.**

**Aramid fibre (e.g. Twaron) is used for flame-retardant clothing, cut-protection, and armor. (From Wikipedia. I did my research!) **

**Kudos to: lostinlife88, Raines, Echizen, idontseepenguins, BlackestNight BrightestDay, and Koharu Veddette! **


	8. Chapter 7: Accusations

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Chapter 7 – Accusations_

– _May 31st – 1:45 PM – _

"Are you alright?" Kyoya asked when he came back. She was finished dusting and lifting prints from the money and was about to start processing the paper.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with her wrists. "Just tired of all this crap." She opened the paper's bag and delicately pulled it out, trying not to stare too much at the bloodstains. It was mostly black with white margins. It was also rather thick. "Definitely not regular paper. Not construction paper either," she muttered to herself, writing it down on a note pad. Arashi's blood had effectively soaked into it making it hard to tell what it was. It was odd that the colors reminded her of something though. "Doesn't this remind you of something?" She pointed at the black square surrounded by white.

He looked at it for a moment then nodded, his eyes widening. "Polaroid picture." Haruhi hurried to flick on the bright lamp on the desk and hold the photograph underneath it. It was still too stained to tell what it was but the outline of a person was clear. "He got a picture of his attacker."

"But where the hell did the camera go?" She was in complete awe.

"Maybe the killer took it with them." She shook her head. Something just didn't make sense. She stared at the paper in her hand hard, trying to make out what else could possibly be there.

"He wouldn't have had the time if he confronted them. It's got to be something else." Rotating the picture, she continued to stare at it, noticing other outlines appear. "Kyoya... There's more than one person in this picture." She pointed.

Haruhi was right. There was more than one person in that picture. There was a whole circle of them. "Is there any way that you could get it somewhat clearer and back to the normal?" he asked, gazing at her intently.

"I think so," she muttered, turning it over in her gloved hands before placing it on the scanner carefully. The picture appeared on screen in less than a minute. "Removing darkening due to blood," she mumbled to herself under her breath, clicking furiously to outline bloodstains and remove them digitally.

Kyoya braced his hands against the desk on either side of her, looking over her shoulder with concentration. She glanced at him, briefly distracted by his position, before turning back to her work. "Lightening contrast." It actually looked quite a bit like an actual photo now. "Brightening."

It was a color photo. Though it was still a bit unclear on details due to the quality of it they could at least tell what it was. A ring of people, looking up with their arms spread out and smiles on their faces. Tamaki was there. As was Riyuki, Saki, and about 5 other people. Haruhi was staring at one in particular. Kyoya was just staring at the picture. "Riyuki... Riyuki gave that picture to Arashi about a year ago. It's of her section's staff at the school."

Haruhi just stared at it. Why was her past coming back to haunt her? "Kyoya," she whispered, "The blood was a sign." She pushed a button that made all the bloodstains reappear. One of them was a circle around 4 heads. A dark brown haired man with green eyes, Riyuki, a woman with red hair and green eyes and another man with blonde hair and green eyes. "And I know him," she added, pointing to the dark-haired one.

She turned her gaze to his face. "I thought he'd left the country."

She seemed lost. Which was completely unlike her. This guy, whoever he was, had done something to her. "Who is he?" Kyoya asked calmly.

"Yukito Warami."

"And what did he do to you?"

"Kyoya, he's my ex-boyfriend," she said, her eyes wide and her face filled with distraught. "I know the other guy too not the girl though. Yora White. He's Yukito's best friend. If they're circled in _blood _what the hell does that mean?"

"Do you still care about them?" She shook her head furiously. "What's wrong then?" Haruhi broke her gaze, pushing him away so she could walk to the other side of the room, her hand to her head.

"He... loses his temper easily," she muttered, shaking her head.

Suddenly, he knew what had happened. Anger flared in him. "Did you ever report him?"

Again, she shook her head, staring at him. "Never. It wasn't bad enough to. But I left him afterwords."

"Haruhi," Kyoya stated, jaw set as he strode toward her and put his hands on her shoulders. "He _beat _you. And you didn't report him? Or tell me?"

"It wasn't that big of a deal," she said sharply, shrugging his hands off. The computer beeping cut off his next reply. "Fingerprints came up." She brushed past him to the machine, opening the blinking orange window on the bottom. "No matches on the casings," she mumbled, avoiding his eyes, "Only matches on the money are Arashi's, though there is another set of prints on it. The second set matches the other unknowns that we've found. None of which match Saki's or Tamaki's."

"So what do you want me to do, Haruhi?" His voice clearly conveyed his annoyance with her. She did her best not to flinch.

"Bring in Warami and White. Question them," she said simply. "But do _not _mention anything about me. It's behind me and I want it to stay there. Find out who the woman is. She has to be part of the section. There's a chance that this might just be a coincidence."

"Rule 39," he shot back.

"You know I disregard that rule. Don't go in there accusing him of murder when he might not have done it. Now get going."

He was headed to the door when he was stopped by the sheriff in the doorway with his hand up. "There might be a slight problem with that," he said, staring at them both apathetically.

"And that would be?" Kyoya asked smoothly.

He pointed at the lead investigator. "You are coming with me. Because you have a lot of explaining to do." Haruhi looked at her partner questioningly. He shrugged and shook his head. "Go to interrogation. I'll join you soon enough." Kyoya nodded once, slipping out the door. The sheriff turned to her. "I think you should go visit your lab techs, Fujioka. They'll be able to explain everything."

"I'd rather hear some of it from you, Sir."

"I need you to run an interrogation." She frowned and gave him a questioning look. "On him." He pointed his thumb behind him toward where Kyoya had just taken off.

"Why...?" Haruhi asked cautiously, her eyebrows creasing in a frown.

"Like I said. Your lab techs will explain everything."

– _May 31st – 2:06 PM – _

Haruhi made a beeline for Hunny and Renge's lab. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded.

"Eh? What's wrong Haru-chan?" Hunny asked sweetly, gazing at her with wide chocolate eyes. She stared back at them.

"You don't know?" she murmured softly. They shook their heads. "The sheriff wants to interrogate _Kyoya _for some godforsaken reason. He wants me to run it and he told me to talk to you guys."

"Must've been the twins," Renge commented dryly.

"Or Takashi," Hunny interjected. Haruhi closed her eyes. Now how the hell was she going to figure out what the hell was going on? To her knowledge the twins were still out to lunch and who knew where Mori was? Her hands found her head while she plopped down in a chair behind her.

"What the hell did Kyoya do?" she groaned, running a hand through her hair while simultaneously feeling the urge to tear it out.

Renge bit her lip as she looked at her. "It might have something to do with the hair that I found on Riyuki's clothes," she mumbled. Haruhi's eyes shot to her colleague's. "A DNA scan confirmed that it was Kyoya's..."

She stood up abruptly. "Dammit! Why didn't you say so before?" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "Why the hell was it there?"

"Haruhi!"

She spun around, taking in the twins, breathless, in the doorway. She sighed tiredly. "Do either of you know what's going on?"

"It was Kyoya, Haruhi," Hikaru said softly. Her face twisted into an expression of disbelief. "Kyoya killed Riyuki and Arashi."

Haruhi shook her head furiously while the other two lab techs stared at the Hitachiins. "That... that can't be right," she mumbled, "That's not... He wouldn't..."

"He did, Haruhi," Kaoru said, also looking incredibly distraught.

"How?" she demanded, sitting down, "_How _can you prove it? What _motive _does he possibly have?"

"We're just as shocked as you are, Haruhi," they murmured, "We worked with him almost as long as you."

"_HOW_?" she asked again, louder this time. "None of the prints on _anything _are his. They would've shown up as matches almost immediately if they were."

"They weren't fingerprints. They were smudges that looked like fingerprints," Kaoru muttered.

"The tool used to create them was found in his apartment," Hikaru added gently.

Haruhi shook her head. She didn't believe any of this. Kyoya wouldn't kill anyone. He even refrained from shooting suspects. "That doesn't explain the handwriting."

"You said that it looked like his. That's because it was."

"Only he wrote it in a way that looked slightly altered. Tried to frame Tamaki."

"How would he have murdered Arashi? He was sleeping right next to me the entire night!" Renge glowered slightly at this as Haruhi belatedly realized that she had said he'd been on the couch all night before.

"He got out without waking you to finish his beer didn't he?"

"He could have easily paid Arashi, snuck out after the break-in, and killed him."

"He owns a 9millimeter Beretta, Haruhi. Didn't he tell you that? His service weapon is a .45 Glock but he _owns _a Beretta."

She kept shaking her head because it just couldn't be true. She'd worked with Kyoya for 8 years. There was no way that he had murdered someone on purpose. "What motive could he possibly have?" she asked, putting her head in her hands.

"Haruhi, Riyuki was his ex. It could be something from their relationship that he doesn't want spreading," Hikaru stated gently.

"That doesn't make sense," she almost yelled. The twins closed their eyes. "The computer. Explain the computer. And the aramid. And the goddamn photo with _three _other people circled in Arashi's _blood_."

"Computer could easily have been him. He worked with computers just as well as Hikaru. You know that," Kaoru mumbled, trying not to be affected by her outburst. Everyone in the room knew she was closer to Kyoya than she probably should be. They all knew that this was hard on her. "The aramid... He had access to those gloves here. The photo, whatever it has, could just be a coincidence."

"Rule 39!" Haruhi spat. "Kyoya wouldn't threaten me. He wouldn't. He isn't behind this."

"Haru-chan," Hunny mumbled, looking sad with a frown on his face. "The evidence is against him. You have to go interrogate him."

She looked away from all of them, keeping her fists clenched. She still didn't believe this. She didn't at all. The twins handed her a folder. "Haruhi, there's something else," Kaoru said quietly, glancing at his brother.

"An anonymous container of arsenic was dropped off at the base with a typed note that said it was for the Sachiru case," Hikaru continued off his brother's statement.

"His prints were all over it, Haruhi. Kyoya's prints and no one else's." The two of them were silent for a moment. "I also found the take out box Riyuki ate out of for her last meal. His prints were on it... And... Arsenic was in the bottom..." he trailed off.

She felt hurt of betrayal but also angry disbelief fill her. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Her heart felt heavy. There was no way that she could get him out of this. Hunny was right. The evidence was against him. She heaved a huge sigh. Her partner was a murderer. She had to assume that her partner had killed his ex-girlfriend and her brother. "Suppose I should go start the interrogation," she mumbled reluctantly.

– _May 31st – 2:20 PM – _

"Why do I have to do it?" Haruhi asked the sheriff who was standing next to her, looking through the glass at her partner – no, the suspect. If she started thinking of him like her partner and not as a suspect than she was going to run into problems.

"You're the one that will know immediately if he's lying. You'll know the right questions to ask. The right ones to get him on edge," the older man answered calmly, glancing at her.

"He's my partner."

"All the more reason. He'll be more vulnerable to you. Especially if you're as close as the others say you are."

She closed her eyes and nodded slowly. "I assume you'll be watching."

"Correct assumption. I don't want to believe that one of our top agents is a murderer either, Fujioka. Which is why if you can prove all this damn evidence wrong then everything will be better again. I'll also put a word in to the DA to get you a badge and a gun."

"Got it," she mumbled, moving to exit the room.

"Fujioka." She turned back briefly. "You might need these." She caught the metal cuffs that were tossed at her. For some odd reason they felt heavier than they really should have. She nodded and turned back to the door. She took a deep breath, clutching the folder she was carrying tightly, before entering the room with a calm air. She sat down silently across from him, placing the folder in front of her.

"Haruhi," Kyoya sighed in relief. "What the hell is going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know," she said softly, laying out the various evidence logs in front of him without making eye contact. He looked over it as she asked, "Why'd you do it?" She felt all her trust in him evaporate, replacing with a betrayed hurt.

He looked up at her. She refused to look him in the eye. "I didn't."

"You were so damn insistent on this one because you were trying to steer it away from yourself. But you betrayed my trust. You threatened me. How could you?"

"I didn't," he stated again, "I'd never do that to you."

"The evidence is against you. No matter what you say here, I can't save you. So just tell the truth, ok? Tell me why you did it."

"I didn't."

"Kyoya, your prints are all over that take out container that has arsenic in the bottom. Your prints are all over that container of arsenic. It was your handwriting on all those notes. You can't lie to me. Why were you there?"

He sighed, pushing his glasses up. "I didn't write those notes, I didn't poison Riyuki, and I _didn't _kill her. I had no reason to. I did have lunch with her the day she died though. We had take out. But I swear on my mother's grave that I don't know how the arsenic got there."

At the mention of his mother, she finally looked him in the eye, feeling her entire resistance break down. If he was swearing on the mother that had died 20 years ago then this really was serious. "Why didn't you ever mention that you were there? I _might _have been able to keep you from going to jail for life if you had."

"It wasn't relevant."

"How is it not relevant? You were at the crime scene the day she died for crying out loud!"

"Because," Kyoya stated with an angry kind of edge, "My presence had nothing to do with her death so I didn't think it was necessary to mention that I'd been there."

"Why were you eating with her anyway?"

He sighed wearily. "I have lunch with her once every month. I have been for the last four years. I brought take out to her this time."

"What else?"

He let out a small laugh. "Who's detached now?" he asked softly, eying her carefully, "You actually believe this don't you?" She was silent, averting her gaze again. "I've been your partner for eight years. If I had wanted to murder anyone I would have already."

"Just answer the question, Kyoya."

"We talked. Caught up. No arguments since I know that's going to be the next question. I had no reason to kill her. She was my friend. Granted we weren't as close as I am to you but we still were." She swallowed down the emotion she felt seeping into her quickly. She couldn't lose control of herself now. "I didn't kill her. You know that."

"I know that!" she snapped, "_I _do! But everyone else thinks you're a murderer! Everyone else thinks that you killed your ex-girlfriend and her brother!" She took a deep breath and stood before continuing, "And _they _have the evidence to prove it. So give me something I can use dammit!"

"Like what?" he retorted, "A confession to a murder I didn't commit? Is that what you want? That's what they sent you in here for isn't it?" His eyes were angrily defiant. Despite the fact that he was deep in some serious shit.

"No! I don't want a confession! I need a damn explanation! Tell me how the hell your prints are on everything! Give me some sort of proof that the man I've been working with for the last eight years and who I'd give my _life _for isn't responsible for this!"

He was quiet for a moment. "I don't know," he said softly, eyes for once betraying everything. "I don't know, Haruhi."

She looked at him sadly. "Then I can't help you," she whispered, "I'm sorry but your word and my trust in you mean nothing to a jury. All they'll see is the evidence against you being cold hard fact that you're a murderer. No matter how good your lawyer is, they won't see it any other way." She bowed her head, feeling the sorrow consume her. Then she stood, taking the pair of cuffs the sheriff had given her earlier. "You'll have to stay in a holding cell until preliminaries and trial."

"This is a mistake."

"I know it is. But I can't stop it." She strode over to him as he stood. She avoided his eyes and walked behind him, gently pulling his hands behind his back and slapping the cuffs on his wrists. "I'm sorry," she whispered, resting her forehead on his shoulder. "I'm sorry that you had to see her murdered. I'm sorry that you were then accused of the crime later. I'm sorry that I can't do anything."

"You can," he replied quietly. "Keep working, Haruhi. There's something there that whoever this guy is doesn't want us to know. Keep working."

"I will," she promised softly, lifting her head and pushing him out gently.

"Stay at my apartment tonight," he murmured, "You can't stay at yours. It's still a closed crime scene. And you really shouldn't be alone anyway. Someone might still try to kill you." She had a smile a bit as she rolled her eyes. He was facing life in jail and he was more worried about her well-being.

"I can't stay at yours either," she mumbled in reply, heading down the hall and noticing that the sheriff was following at a reasonable distance to give them privacy. "They'll search it for further evidence."

"Stay with the twins then. Or Mori and Hunny. Or even Nekozawa for Pete's sake. Just don't stay somewhere alone. Promise me you won't."

"Alright. I promise I won't stay alone tonight," she muttered, "But I doubt I'll be going home at all anyway. I doubt I'll even sleep. I promise you, I'm going to prove you innocent even if I have to go question Yukito and Yora myself."

They were passing the labs where the rest of their team were looking out at them sadly. Haruhi made eye contact with the twins and nodded. They got the message, scurrying to their posts and beginning to work furiously. It wasn't until they were outside that he spoke again. "Be careful, alright?"

"I will," she murmured. "I won't go anywhere alone. I promise. And... Y'know... The twins both have guns if anyone tries." He chuckled softly despite his situation. "You just... Don't talk to any cops that aren't me."

"You aren't a cop."

"Shut up. Once I get your sorry butt out of jail you'll say different."

"Whatever you say," he muttered as they reached the parked police car.

She avoided his eyes for a moment until she had to speak. "The sheriff's driving you down there. Watch yourself. I've heard jail is rough. Just ask my dad." He snorted. "I'll visit you soon."

"Alright," he replied softly as she opened the door of the car. He slid into the seat. "Haruhi."

"Hmm?"

"You're a great CSI and an even better partner."

She nodded, emotions welling up until she got a hold of them and yanked them back down. "You'd do the same for me," she mumbled quietly. "Bye."

"Bye." She shut the door.

The sheriff approached her. "Y'know, Fujioka... The DA's office is going to officially close this case with the conclusion that the killer's been caught and _is _Ohtori." She nodded once. "Unofficially, I'm going to give you 24 hours to keep running and collecting evidence that could prove this wrong. But I can only give you those 24 hours. After that I'll have to submit to the higher ups."

"Got it, Sir," she replied.

"Do the department proud."

"I'll try."

"His preliminaries are the 1st at noon. Trial will be set after that. You have until then to find something that proves him innocent before I have to shut you down."

"Alright." She swallowed, feeling the pressure hit her shoulders. "Sheriff, do me a favor and keep this out of the news." He nodded once, smirking slightly as she headed back inside.

– _May 31st – 3:12 PM – _

"Hikaru, get that damn computer running. You have two days to get something from it. Kaoru, Mori, Hunny, go over evidence again with a fine tooth comb. Run the scenes again, everything. Even my apartment. Renge, run every single damn fiber and print again," she commanded forcefully once she was inside.

"What?" they all asked incredulously.

"Do it!" she yelled, storming to her own lab. She printed off a quick copy of the picture she'd digitally restored with Kyoya earlier. This picture was her best lead until they could pull something else from the evidence they were going through again. There had to be something there. Something that led to someone other than her partner.

She went to Kasanoda's office next, noticing that the door was slightly ajar and his voice was coming from inside. _'He must be yelling at someone on the phone again,' _she thought with a soft sigh. She waited until she heard the clatter of the receiver back on it's rack before entering the small space.

"Kasanoda," she murmured respectively.

"Fujioka!" he exclaimed in surprise, standing up quickly and knocking a pile of papers to the floor in the process. She gave him a wry smile and knelt to pick up his papers. "What're you doing here?"

"Ah," she mumbled, standing and handing over the files she had collected, "I was wondering if you'd temporarily help me oversee an investigation. Seeing as Kyoya's... Otherwise distracted." She coughed a bit.

"Oh," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head while a light blush tainted his cheeks, "Of course."

"Thanks. It's a big help. Especially considering I still don't have a badge and all." She shot him a heart-melting smile, knowing the affects she was having on him and smirking inwardly at her successful manipulation skills. She'd learned from the best after all. "First, if you could drive me to Tokyo High, that'd be great."

"O-Of course," Kasanoda stuttered lamely, making a clumsy grab for his keys while holstering his already loaded .45 Glock that was identical to the one Kyoya carried. She checked her watch. Classes should be out already. That meant she could probably visit Tamaki and figure out who the girl in the picture was. Perhaps she'd even interrogate the shit out of Yukito and Yora if she worked up the courage to do so.

For now though, she'd have to play her cards carefully. Kyoya wasn't around to protect her and her team was busy rerunning evidence. Kasanoda was her only protection at the moment.

–

**A/N: Internet connection here still hates me. Thus I'm not as distracted and can write more. Hence the reason why this update was so quick. (Or not so quick depending on whenever the hell I can get the damn connection to work again.) **

**Don't worry... I'm still working on LD. (Kind of sort of distracted by this though. So intense at the moment!) **

**Kudos to: Raines, Koharu Veddette, Suess MD, echizen, idontseepenguins, lostinlife88, BlackestNight BrightestDay, and Bunni Trulove. (Woah what a list! I love you guys.) **

**PS: Oh look. Haha. The internet wouldn't work for THE REST OF THE WEEK. But I'm home. So now you get this while I revise/edit the other... 5 chapters I have completely written out (which I'm going to feed to you very slowly just to hold you in suspense. MWUHAHAHA.) **


	9. Chapter 8: Searching

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl_

_Chapter 8 – Searching _

– _May 31st – 3:18 PM – _

Kyoya and the Sheriff arrived at the county jail after a very slow drive. "Kyoya, you know I follow the evidence like any good investigator," he muttered, dropping formalities since they were alone. "That's why I'm having to do this."

"I understand, Ken," the raven-haired male responded, still looking out the window distantly. His hands were falling asleep due to losing circulation from the cuffs. Now he knew how his detainees felt when he took them in. He was really hoping that this entire damn charade didn't get into the news. That would ruin his career. Even if Haruhi managed to prove his innocence before his trial.

"Haruhi is the only one who's allowed to visit you. She and myself. That way it will be less likely to get out." He slid out of the front seat of the car, opening the back door seconds later. Shichi helped Kyoya out of the car. "Anyone else you'd be ok with?"

"The Hitachiins," he answered immediately, not looking at his superior but instead staring ahead expressionlessly. "And Kasanoda. But only if he's already aware of what's happened." They started to head inside of the huge holding faculty, Kyoya being pushed ahead of the Sheriff who had a medium grip on his arm.

The older of the two chuckled lightly. "You know that Haruhi is probably recruiting Kasanoda as we speak." Kyoya had to smirk. Kasanoda seemed to be a fallback for both he and Haruhi when they were having problems working with each other then.

"I don't doubt it," he muttered under his breath. They entered the building, causing both of them to fall silent. The Sheriff nodded at the officer behind the desk when he came in. Said officer gave Kyoya an odd look when he noticed that he was the one in cuffs.

And just seeing the looks he was getting from other detainees that were being held, he knew this was going to be a long night.

– _May 31st – 3:32 PM – _

She pulled out her cellphone when the pulled up in front of the school, just now thinking that Tamaki might have already gone home. The phone rang three times before a cheerful voice answered, "Tamaki Suoh speaking!"

"Tamaki," she said softly, "Are you still at work?"

"Ah, Haruhi! Of course I am!"

"I'll be right up then," she mumbled, hanging up without saying goodbye. She shot Kasanoda a look that said to follow her. He scrambled out of the car after her. "I just need you there for moral support."

"Got it."

They were silent as they entered the school building. Haruhi went straight up to her ex-boyfriend's classroom with Kasanoda on her tail. They passed a few students who gave them odd looks and whispered a bit but the two ignored them. When she entered the French classroom, Tamaki was waiting for her with a warm smile and spread arms. She drew in a shaky breath. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked jubilantly.

She looked at the floor, rocking on her feet for a moment before striding forward to embrace him. "Kyoya's in trouble," she whispered into his shirt. "He's in deep trouble."

The blonde pulled back but kept his hands on her shoulders and gazed at her questioningly, a frown on his face. Kasanoda stood back, shifting on his feet awkwardly. Haruhi glanced at him. "You can wait outside if you want. I don't think I'll be long." The red-head nodded and let himself out into the hallway.

As soon as the door had shut she turned her gaze back to Tamaki, waiting for his first question. "What kind of trouble?"

She drew in a deep breath. "Do you know an Arashi Sachiru?"

He shook his head slowly. "I only know him from what Riyuki told me about him. And that's just that he's her brother that her parents disowned and he changed his name to Hirota. I've never met him in person though."

"Tamaki," she mumbled, closing her eyes, "he broke into my apartment last night. Was paid by someone to break in and leave a note by my bed. We found him through prints left there but... He's dead."

"What does this have to do with Kyoya?" he asked softly.

"There's been evidence that was uprooted that Kyoya was the one that killed Riyuki and Arashi. That's why he's in trouble. I have a day to prove it wrong or he's going to jail for double homicide and his career's ruined," she replied quickly, glancing at the door as if someone was going to come through and catch her fraternizing with her ex.

The blonde's eyes widened. "Kyoya wouldn't do something like that!"

"I know," she said, feeling slightly lost due to the insane pressure that she held on her shoulders. "I know. But the evidence says otherwise. Was... Was he here on the 29th? He said he was having lunch with Riyuki."

Tamaki nodded carefully. "Yes. She said she was having lunch with him like she does every month. Turned down my offer to take her out," he murmured, standing back from her and placing his hand on his chin in thought while his other found a place in the crook of his elbow.

"Did he have _any _reason to hurt her?"

"None."

"Nothing from their relationship that she was threatening to reveal?"

"Nothing, Haruhi. Kyoya and Riyuki were close. Even when I was married to her I think she was closer to him than she was to me."

She nodded to herself. If she couldn't find cold hard evidence to prove her partner's innocence then she could definitely use Tamaki's testimony. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the printed restored picture. "This was found in Arashi's fist during autopsy. I restored it and found that four faces were circled in blood." She turned the paper carefully to show him, pointing out what she was talking about.

Tamaki concentrated hard. "That's our section's staff. The picture's old though. Last year," he murmured, pointing at each person in turn as he went around the circle. "Jaydelle Lawrence, History; Me, French; Yukito Warami, Chemistry; Riyuki, English; Karin Ronito, Japanese; Yora White, Biology; Anna Yorami, Math; and Saki Wotoko, Physics. The Health and Music teachers were absent the day it was taken. Orabi Guchi and Hikaru Capatori."

Alright. Now she was getting somewhere. "Do you know where Karin is?"

"She... She disappeared about three months ago." Dammit. There went her chance of talking to her. "She's thought to be dead now." Haruhi pinched the bridge of her nose. She'd have to talk to Yukito and Yora now. Great. He stomach fluttered uncomfortably at the thought.

"Dammit," she muttered under her breath, running a hand through her hair. "Do the police still have an open investigation on her?" He nodded slowly. Well, she could pull the file on that at least. "Yukito and Yora still work here?"

"Yup. Just down the hall in fact. Do you want to talk to them...?"

"No," she deadpanned immediately. She couldn't do that right now. Her heartbeat was already nervously accelerating to heights that she didn't want to think about. "Well... Eventually. Don't say anything about me asking though. Alright?"

"Got it," he mumbled, though he looked a tad confused.

"I'll explain everything once this is all cleared up," she said softly, "I promise. Just for now, keep your phone on and be ready to take a call if I need you."

He nodded obediently, for once acting completely serious instead of bouncing off the walls at hyper speed. "You can count on me, Haruhi," he replied, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. She smiled gratefully and turned on her heel.

"You should go down to the station and visit him. He'll probably need the support. As much as he doesn't want to admit it. And you're his best friend. I'll get you a pass to see him," she threw over her shoulder on her way out the door.

"Alright!" he called after her. "Good luck!"

– _May 31st – 5:21 PM – _

There really wasn't much to do in jail. Just lay around and regret getting yourself into whatever mess it was that landed you there.

"Hey Ohtori!" one of the other prisoners called from another cell. "How's it feel to be locked up like one of the bad guys?"

Kyoya sighed and ignored them, choosing to throw a hand over his eyes and pretend to be asleep instead. These bastards. He always knew that one day this job would come back and bite him in the ass. Sure his karma was better than anything because of all the murderers and other felons he'd put away, but that didn't mean those men weren't out to get him. A few of them were here in fact.

And those few were conspiring against him with mockery at the moment. He was rather calm despite the fact that he was facing life in jail. Albeit a bit pissed. But calm otherwise. He had complete faith in Haruhi. And while she was working he was going to be thinking about how the hell all this had gotten pinned on him. Mainly – the arsenic. To his knowledge, he'd never touched the stuff. Ever. But then, how the hell had his prints gotten on a container of it?

It made no sense. And the fact that he had absolutely no motive whatsoever. Why would someone try to frame him? It was illogical in the highest sense of the word.

His musings were cut short by an officer standing outside his cell door. "You have a visitor." Haruhi was already here? She said she'd visit soon but he'd assumed that meant early tomorrow.

"Alright," Kyoya muttered, pulling himself up as the door unlocked and slid open. The officer didn't cuff him like he was supposed to. There were perks to being a cop yourself. Your colleagues trusted you even if you were being accused of murder. He led the way to the conference room where the door closed behind him. The bespectacled man turned, expecting to find a certain brunette woman.

Instead he came face-to-face with the idiotic blonde French teacher that was his best friend. "Tamaki?"

"Kyoya!" he exclaimed, standing and immediately jumping him in a hug.

The calmer of the two pushed him away and grumbled, "What the hell are you doing here, Tamaki? I thought Ken, Haruhi, Kasanoda, and the twins were the only ones with clearance to see me."

"Ahh. Haruhi got me a pass to come see you!" he said happily, just beaming. "Said that you deserved to see your best friend even if you're in jail."

"She told you... everything then?" he asked, slightly skeptical that his partner would spill everything to someone outside the department. The blonde nodded vigorously. Kyoya would have to have a talk with her later. "I didn't kill her. Or Arashi."

"I know," he replied solemnly, "You're a lot of things but a murderer isn't one of them."

The raven-haired male scowled. "What's _that _supposed to mean?" Tamaki just shook his head, a cheerful smile on his face. "What all did you tell _her _exactly?"

"That you wouldn't do it. And she brought by a picture of my section staff from last year. I gave her everyone's names and their classes. She asked about Karin, Yukito, and Yora mainly."

Kyoya nodded carefully, gears in his head turning at a mile a minute. "Yukito and Yora still work there?" A nod was given in reply. "And what about Karin?"

"Missing. Been so for three months. Probably dead." His friend cursed softly under his breath. That just complicated things. Or uncomplicated things, depending on your view. One of three leads was out. But because she was missing that could just mean that she was part of it and no one knew.

"Karin have any spits with Riyuki?"

"Nope. They were pretty good friends." Kyoya sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Don't worry about it, Kyoya. Haruhi will solve everything. She's brilliant like that," Tamaki murmured in consolation.

He smirked. "She definitely is," he replied softly.

The question was: would she be able to solve it in time?

– _May 31st – 9:25 PM – _

Hours and hours of running and rechecking evidence later she finally allowed her team to go home. If they weren't well-rested then they would get sloppy. "Hey Haruhi," the twins chorused as they stuck their heads in her office door. She had her head in her hands and her elbows on her desk. "Are you going to go home any time soon?"

She shook her head, lifting it briefly to look at them. "I can't. Apartment's a crime scene. Kyoya offered me his but they're conducting searches on it. I doubt I'd be able to sleep even if I wanted to." She took a huge gulp from the coffee cup that was resting on her desk.

"You could stay with us," Hikaru muttered.

"Really," Kaoru added with a snort, "No reason for our fearless leader to not be as well-rested as the rest of us. Heard you stopped by Tamaki's classroom again. He have anything?"

She shook her head. "He knew who was in the picture but Karin Ronito has been missing for three months. I've been looking through the missing person's file for the past hour. There's nothing pointing to where she might be now."

"What about the other two?" the older Hitachiin asked with a frown.

She was silent for a while. "I'm only going to them without Kyoya if I absolutely have to," she mumbled, avoiding their eyes. They both had curious looks on their faces. She shook her head at them. "It's not important. Listen, go home and get some sleep. I'm staying here. Tamaki's on call if I need anything."

"What if someone tries to...?" they trailed off, unable to speak of the unspeakable.

"Guys, I'm in a government building with cops crawling everywhere. Do you really think anyone's going to try and kill me?" They sighed and shook their heads. "Good. Now go home." She was distracted. Insanely so. And she couldn't do anything but worry about Kyoya. The set of twins turned to leave but Haruhi had a thought suddenly and called out. "Wait! Hikaru!" Both of them turned back. "Any progress on the computer?" The red-head in question shook his head with an annoyed expression.

"Nothing. The hard-drive locked itself down. Going to take me awhile to get it up."

"When you get back in tomorrow, keep working on it. Work harder than you ever have before. And don't worry about meals. I'll bring them to you."

"We'll be in at 7:30," they murmured. "Hunny and Mori as well. Renge will probably be in a bit later though." She nodded, waving a hand to dismiss them. "By the way. Nekozawa wanted to see you." She sighed and stood, taking her coffee cup with her.

– _May 31__st__ – 9:31 PM – _

"What did you need, Nekozawa?" Haruhi asked upon entering the morgue. She had to hold back a bit of vomit at the sight of Arashi's cut open body lying on the autopsy table. No matter how many years she worked here, that sight would always make her want to puke up her last meal. The creepy coroner was leaning over the corpse, studying it.

"Ahh. Fujioka," he muttered, motioning her over. She sighed and set down her coffee cup on his desk before striding to his side. It had been months since she'd last visited the morgue by herself. Kyoya normally took over that since he could withstand the sight of bloody guts strewn out on trays without puking. "The bullet traveled into his chest just to the right of the heart, scraped an artery and exited out the back." She nodded as he showed her the path carefully with his fingers.

"So he bled out?" The ME nodded slowly. "Would he have had time to give some sort of clue as to who killed him? Say circled someone in a picture."

"Definitely. It probably took him about 3 minutes to bleed out completely. But he would have passed out after a minute and a half. Certainly enough time to circle someone if he had the picture in reach."

She nodded. "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

"No," he explained at once, "I also came across something under his nails. I believe it's skin. But definitely not his. And blood as well." She sucked in a breath as he held up a small container with the little skin and dried blood flakes inside. If the DNA of that skin didn't match Kyoya's, that would be some proof that he hadn't been the one to kill Arashi at least. He handed the plastic cylinder to her. She nodded in thanks.

"Thought you might want to run it to see if there were any matches. Judging by how much was under there I'd say that whoever he scratched would have a pretty deep scratch. Most likely on their upper body."

"Thank you," she said, mind spinning slightly as she turned to exit the lab with DNA sample in hand. He cackled a bit behind her as the door shut.

– _May 31st – 10:27 PM – _

Her computer beeping startled her out of her half-asleep daze. After pulling the DNA from the skin sample, Haruhi had run it against Kyoya's. She'd sighed with relief when it had turned up with a big fat _Negative _on screen. But now she had to run it through the right system to find a match.

The beeping computer was telling her that there wasn't anyone on file with the DNA match. However, there were 8 alleles in common with a woman named Rory Miles. A frown lit her face as she read through the file.

_Name: Rory Miles _

_DOB: October 29th, 1958_

_DOD: May 4th, 1997_

_Age: 39 (at death) _

_Ethnicity: Caucasian _

_Height: 5'8" _

_Weight: 144 lbs_

_Eye Color: Green_

_Hair Color: Red_

_Children: Karin Miles (Karin Ronito) – MISSING_

_Notes: Killed by gunshot to the chest. Found in the Sora River. Murderer never caught. No other living family. Akira Suchi only known partner. _

Pictures from the autopsy and crime scene were coupled with the cold case file.

Haruhi glanced over it again. The DNA had 8 alleles in common, meaning it was from one of her children. But it was _male_. Rory had no sons. Either that or someone had seriously screwed up this record, which had been known to happen.

She rubbed her eyes tiredly, draining what was left of her coffee, and located Karin's missing person's report on her desk. She looked through it again carefully.

_Name: Karin Miles (Karin Ronito) _

_DOB: January 11th, 1980_

_Age: 29_

_Ethnicity: Japanese-Caucasian _

_Height: 5'4"_

_Weight: 148 lbs_

_Eye Color: Green_

_Hair Color: Red_

_Father: Akira Suchi_

_Mother: Rory Miles_

_Partner: Chase Ronito_

_Last seen: February 14th, 2009 in Canbury Park with her father._

There had to be some connection between Karin and Riyuki's murder. She might not have been the murderer since she was missing but there was something that connected them. She looked at the picture of Tamaki's staff again, looking at the four that had been circled. No way that it was a coincidence that those particular four were encircled in Arashi's blood.

And what was even more annoying was the fact that she had no clue what the connection could be.

She looked at Yukito and Yora's faces again, frown creasing even more. "Haruhi." She jumped and spun around quickly, heart starting to race.

"Ahh. Hello Ken," she mumbled, tapping a few keys on the keyboard with a look of utter concentration on her face. The Sheriff looked over her shoulder at her search.

"Rory Miles. Goodness. I haven't seen that name in years," he commented. She gave him a questioning glance. "I worked her case. Was the first one that I failed to find the murderer."

"Hmm," she muttered, turning her gaze back to the computer screen. "The DNA found under Arashi's nails shares 8 alleles with her. But it's male. Not female. And she has no sons." She pointed at the picture. "The four of them are somehow connected. And Arashi was leaving us a sign when he circled them. Why would he circle four people though? Why not one?"

"Perhaps... There's more than one killer in this," Ken Shichi suggested dryly, the very thought of two conspiring murderers on the loose making a shiver run down his spine.

"Perhaps," she breathed. "This isn't enough to prove Kyoya innocent though is it?"

"Unfortunately not. It raises doubt for Hirota's murder though."

It was a start.

– _June 1st – 8:36 AM – _

"When do you think she'll wake up?"

"I dunno. I wanna know when she finally fell asleep on her desk."

"Probably something ridiculous like 2 AM knowing her."

Haruhi let out an angry grunt at being woken up and cracked open one eye blearily, taking in the sight of the Hitachiin brothers standing in front of her. "For your information, Ifell asleep around 4 AM," she grumbled, lifting her head and feeling it pound. "But at least I got somewhere." She glanced at the clock. "Shit. I must not have drunken enough coffee. I should've been able to stay up all night."

"Haruhi," Kaoru said with slight concern worming its way into his voice. "You need to sleep too. You aren't superwoman."

She shook her head. "I don't need sleep when we only have less than 4 hours to prove Kyoya's innocence," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes and taking a huge gulp of the cold coffee sitting on her desk. "Kaoru do me a favor and run that damn doughnut box again. There's gotta be something else on it. And someone get me the supposed device that was used to leave those prints."

The two of them nodded quickly. "And Hikaru, get that _damn _computer running _today_."

"I'll do my best," he replied, turning on his heel and half-running to his lab.

"Did you guys eat yet?" she called after them.

"Nope!" they chimed over their shoulders.

"I'll take breakfast orders in about 20 minutes!" She sat back and closed her eyes briefly. Kaoru reappeared in her office a minute later carting a plastic bag with what looked like rocks in it. "What the are those things?"

"The device they found in Kyoya's apartment. The patterns on them make it look like they leave prints when pressed to something. But when you print the rock itself nothing shows up unless someone actually left their fingerprints there," the younger Hitachiin explained briefly.

"Where do you buy something like this?"

"No clue. It's not a registered product anywhere to my knowledge."

She stared at him blankly for a moment then shook her head. "Leave it here and then you can get back to work," she muttered, "Has someone run all the scenes again?"

"Mori went by the school and Hunny's going back to the alley."

"Good." She leaned back in her chair while Kaoru set down the plastic bag. Haruhi pulled on her gloves and opened the bag carefully while her colleague watched. She brushed printing dust over the small stones slowly, seeing it stick in a single fingerprint pattern. She tape-lifted them and immediately scanned them into her computer. "Please don't be Kyoya's," she whispered under her breath. With crossed fingers she hit the button to compare them to her partner's.

It took seconds for a _Negative Match _to flash on screen.

She almost laughed with relief. "They aren't his," she murmured in disbelief. "Kaoru! They aren't Kyoya's!" He broke out in a grin. "Did they just assume he was the one that used it because it was in his apartment?"

"I guess so."

"Well... I shot that theory out of the water. Someone broke in and planted this in Kyoya's apartment." She typed in a few phrases and hit enter, sending the computer into a wild search for matching prints. Her stomach growled loudly. She glanced down at it as Kaoru raised an eyebrow. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Ham, eggs, and an English muffin. Same for Hikaru," he answered immediately. She nodded and stood, going out of the door. She pulled out her cellphone as she headed for the twins' lab with Kaoru on her tail. "Hunny, Mori? Do you want anything in particular for breakfast?"

"Ham and eggs is fine, Haru-chan!" came the small blonde's cheerful reply. His cousin merely hummed in agreement.

"Alright. That just makes my life easier then," she mumbled. "Are you at the alley right now?"

"Yup!"

"Finding anything?"

His voice fell. "No. Maybe we'll find something in your apartment though, ne?"

"Don't bother going to my apartment. Go to Arashi's alley. Kyoya and I might've missed something." The only thing that searching her apartment would do was give more proof that Arashi had been there. It had nothing to do with the actual murders. "I'll see you two in a bit." She didn't wait for a reply before she hung up.

–

**A/N: Like I said... This is a very distracting story. All I can think about is murder mysteries. And all I can write is this. Because if I don't it drives me crazy. **

**Everyone in the US have an awesome 4th of July? I did. Didn't see many fireworks due to the damn RAIN but I still had an awesome time at my friend's house! (Even if I'm sick now from eating too much junk food.) **

**Kudos to: Enigmaticrose4, BlackestNight BrightestDay, idontseepenguins, BunniTrulove, JollyElfDance554 (Your theory's interesting. But you must remember... The murder weapon's an M-9 Beretta. Kyoya and Kasanoda both have .45 Glocks as service weapons!), and Cheeto-ScorpioDimagram. **


	10. Chapter 9: Clearing

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl_

_Chapter 9 – Clearing_

– _June 1st – 9:24 PM – _

Less than three hours. That's all that was running through her head. And yet, she was using up some of that time. Haruhi strode into the county jail at a brisk pace. "Here to visit Kyoya Ohtori," she stated quickly to the officer at the front desk.

"Name?"

"Haruhi Fujioka." She showed him her ID as proof. He nodded as someone else headed back to retrieve her partner. The officer behind the desk merely motioned to the door on the left passively. She nodded in thanks and strode in there, taking a seat in one of the chairs. However she stood up again seconds later when Kyoya entered the room. He stared at her. "I don't know if I can get enough," she said softly. "I have _something _but it's not enough."

She sat down heavily while he slowly walked over and sat across from her. "What do you have?" he asked gently, leaning his elbows on his knees.

She blinked a few times as she gathered everything from memory. "I have DNA from under Arashi's nails that have no matches in the system. However, there are 8 alleles in common with Rory Miles, a cold case victim. Otherwise known as Karin Ronito's mother."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Kyoya, the DNA's male. Not female."

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don't tell me she has no other children..."

"She doesn't. At least not known ones. That's the big thing that's been driving me crazy. But it proves that you might not have killed Arashi. The other thing is that the prints on the device they found in your apartment, aren't yours. They're also unknown."

"Have you talked to Warami or White yet?"

She was silent, feeling muscles tense up at the mention of their names. "I... No," she mumbled, frowning and turning her eyes away from him. Her cell started ringing furiously in her pocket at that moment though cutting off his slightly irritated retort. "I don't want to talk to either of them without you," she muttered quickly as she flipped open her phone. "Fujioka."

"Haruhi!" the twins both exclaimed then Kaoru took over, "A hair was caught in the doughnut box. We missed it somehow the first time. The DNA isn't Kyoya's!"

"Is that enough to take to the DA and get the accusation revoked?" she asked quickly.

The sheriff was the one to answer. "Not quite, Haruhi. The arsenic bottle still needs explaining. Besides, there's nothing saying that he wasn't part of it. He could still be proved as a co-conspirator."

"Dammit," she breathed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Alright. Got it. Hikaru get that _damn _computer up."

"Almost got it!" the older twin called. She flipped her phone shut with a soft click, rubbing her forehead.

"Hair on the doughnut box isn't yours. Doesn't disprove that you aren't part of it though," she murmured, looking at him. "Is there _anything _you can give me that might lead us to something?" He stared into her eyes and she noticed the huge bags underneath them. He looked deep in thought though, staring straight through her instead of at her. "I don't think I can do it."

His eyes lit up suddenly behind his glasses. "The take out box!"

"Yes... Your prints were all over it."

"No, Haruhi. There was _one _take out box. _One _that Riyuki and I _both _shared." She stared at him blankly. "Why would I poison myself?"

"You'd go to the doctor to get the heavy metal poisoning cure," she replied, gears also turning in her head.

"I haven't been to the doctor in 8 months. Check my medical and credit records."

She blinked a few times. "Plates," she whispered, whipping out her cellphone and texting a quick command to the twins. "You're brilliant. But that doesn't explain the arsenic."

He shook his head. "I still don't get how my prints got on that. I've never touched the stuff in my life."

Haruhi let out a short breath then asked a question that had been nagging at her since the twins had informed her of it. "Why didn't you tell me that you own a M-9 Beretta?"

Shooting her a confused look, Kyoya replied, "I don't."

"Yes you do. There's one registered to you."

He snorted. "I never registered it."

She was quiet for a moment, thinking. "Someone... impersonated you then?" He nodded slowly, staring her in the eye. "Oh Jesus," she breathed, closing her eyes to try and organize her thoughts. "You... really are brilliant."

"Go get back to work then, Haruhi," Kyoya stated with a smirk, "You've got it now go get the right evidence."

– _June 1__st__ – 10:00 AM – _

"That Beretta was _not _Kyoya's. He never registered one." Haruhi spoke at rapid speed. "Someone impersonated him and bought a gun in order to frame him." Hunny stared at her for a moment. "Is there some way to see where and when the gun was registered?"

The blonde nodded quickly and started typing furiously, muttering to himself at the same time. "Ahh. Downtown gun store! 39th and 102nd! May 28th! Go Haru-chan, go!" Hunny cheered quickly as she ran back out the door.

– _June 1st – 10:22 AM – _

Haruhi drew in a breath as she pushed open the small store's doors. Kasanoda wasn't too far behind her. The owner was behind the counter. He looked up as they entered. Kasanoda flashed his badge quickly when he looked at them questioningly. "Ahh. Well, there ain't anything wrong with my place." A scowl immediately took over his face.

She shot him a charming smile. "We aren't here to shut you down or accuse you of anything. Merely have a few questions about a murder investigation." He nodded for her to continue, looking curious. "The 28th you sold and registered a M-9 Beretta to Kyoya Ohtori, correct?"

"Yeah. I remember him. Creepy fellow."

She rose an eyebrow and looked at Kasanoda then held up a picture of her partner. "Did he look like this?" The guy's mouth fell open as he slowly shook his head a look of fear on his face. "This-," she motioned to the picture, "-is Kyoya Ohtori. The man you sold a gun to... was an imposter."

"Oh shit," he squeaked in reply.

"And you know what the best part of this is?" she asked softly, leaning toward him, "He's one of the top murder investigators in the country. So whoever this is that impersonated him has _really _pissed him off."

"I'm sorry. So sorry," the man gushed, looking scared shit-less of the brunette in front of him.

"Do you have surveillance here?"

"Yes."

"I'll need the tapes of the 28th if that's possible."

"It is!" He scurried into the back in search of surveillance tapes.

Haruhi turned to Kasanoda with a smirk on her face. "I'm really glad Kyoya taught me how to do this," she said quietly.

"I think you scared him."

"That was the point."

"Here you are!" the owner exclaimed, slapping three old-fashioned tapes down in front of her. "And here are the records of the sale. He bought 5 rounds to go with the Beretta." A small packet of papers fell into place on top of the tapes. "Send my sincerest apologizes to Ohtori-san."

"Thank you, Sir," she said with a smile, pushing her card across the wooden surface. "If he shows himself again give me a call."

– _June 1st – 10:31 AM – _

Haruhi sighed softly as they exited the small gun shop. "That was a piece of cake," she muttered to Kasanoda, who nodded in agreement. "Now we just have to get back to the lab and run the tapes till we find the guy who bought the B-."

_BAM! _

She jerked instinctively as the red-head beside her pushed her to the ground behind their vehicle and drew his weapon. Her heart rate increased insanely.

_BAM! BANG! BAM! _

Screams filled the air as the sound of the gunshots died away once more. She looked up through the chaos, seeing a car speed by. A gun-barrel was just barely sticking out the window. She took a quick look at the license plate as Kasanoda took a few shots at the retreating car. "BCG-573," she whispered to herself over and over again.

"It's clear," her temporary partner said quietly. She stayed where she was for a moment then swallowed and sat up. "You weren't hit were you?" Worry laced his voice. She shook her head quickly.

"You?" She looked him over, noticing that his shoulder was bleeding a bit.

"Nicked my shoulder but didn't straight on hit," he replied, holding his wounded shoulder and wincing a bit. She drew in a breath, standing. "What the hell was that?"

"That was someone trying to shoot me," she murmured, gazing in the direction the vehicle had retreated in. "BCG-573. They're going to regret this when I get a hold of them. Worse of all, they'll have to face Kyoya's wrath."

Kasanoda was looking at the other side of his car. "Ah shit! Three bullet holes! This car's new, dammit!" She shook her head, laughing a little inside her head.

"I'll drive." She looked behind her at the window of the store, noting the bullet hole in the glass of the window and the frightened look of the shop owner. "In a minute." She pulled a glove on and grabbed a pair of tweezers from her kit, hurrying back into the shop quickly. "You weren't hurt right?" she asked the owner. He shook his head, shaking visibly. "I'm just going to retrieve the bullet. The police that show up will help you out." He nodded, completely mute with fear.

Haruhi looked at the hole in the window and followed a trail with her eyes till she found a shelf that got in the way. She glanced over it, noticing the bullet that was mostly embedded in the soft wood. She plucked it out with a bit of difficulty and left the store again, nodding at the shop owner on the way out. "Let's go," she said to Kasanoda who was already in the passenger's seat.

– _June 1st – 11:01 AM – _

"Haruhi!" the twins both yelled as soon as they saw her. She noticed the television was on, showing the story of the shooting. "Are you alright?"

"No," she muttered dryly, flicking the TV off with an impatient twitch. "Someone tried to kill me. I'm not alright. I'm pissed. Hikaru do you have the _stupid _computer up yet?"

"I'm so close!" he grunted from the ground.

Yes, she was pissed. "BCG-573. Who's car is it?" she growled. Kaoru quickly took over his brother's computer and started typing like a maniac.

"Registered to a Yora White."

A sharp bark of laughter left her mouth. "That bastard." She shoved the bullet she'd gotten from the gun shop, the tapes, and the sales records at Kaoru. "Run the tapes, find whoever the hell impersonated Kyoya and call me when you find something."

"Where are you going?"

"To drag Yora's ass to jail," she spat, turning on her heel and leaving again. Kasanoda followed her like a scared puppy, his shoulder bandaged up.

– _June 1__st__ – 11:11 AM – _

Haruhi didn't even wait for the principal's secretary to ring her in. She burst into his office, ignoring the fact that he was in a meeting. "Yora White. Where is he?"

Chutori shot her a bewildered, slightly enraged look. "He's been up in his classroom. Why?"

"His car was downtown with someone _shooting _at me!" she exclaimed, seething, "I'm taking that bastard in if you don't mind."

"But. The school's credibili-!"

"I'm am _not _waiting until his lunch break!" she snapped, "That bastard tried to kill me. He's a murder suspect in two different murders _and _he probably tried to frame a government agent. If you don't allow me up there I _will _charge you with something."

The principal's eyes widened, darting his gaze to his colleague then back to her. "Y-Yes ma'am! He's on his planning period anyway!"

"Thank you," she said, pleasantries returning to her voice. She nodded at Kasanoda who took off up to the suspect's classroom. Haruhi shot a glare at Chutori and then left with a nod at the man he was having a meeting with. "Sorry to interrupt."

– _June 1st – 11:26 AM – _

"Haruhi! Bullets match the one in Arashi's murder!" Kaoru called through his lab door as she passed on her way to interrogation.

"Good!" she grunted, "I have something else to pin on this _bastard _then!" Both twins were smirking when she left them. She didn't wait for Kasanoda's signal to burst into the interrogation room. "Remember me, Yora?" she hissed.

"Ha-Haruhi?" the blonde in front of her stuttered in surprise, "Why was I dragged away from my class?"

She glared at him, laughing harshly. "You know why you're here."

"No. I honestly do-."

"Explain why your car was ironically downtown while I was! And explain why the driver was shooting at me!"

"I was in my classroom all of the last hour!"

"You're a dirty liar," she growled, bracing her hands on the table in front of her and leaning forward with a look of fury on her face. "It was your planning period. You left the school in your car, drove downtown, and you tried to kill me with the M-9 Beretta you bought by impersonating Kyoya Ohtori."

"I did not!" he exclaimed in outrage.

"Then who did?" He was silent, looking straight ahead with a look of defiance on his face. "Yora! You bastard! Who shot at me?" He was still quiet. "Your license plate number is BCG-573 correct?" He nodded, looking slightly pissed. "Your car was downtown. Where were you?" He looked away. "Exactly. You were shooting at me."

"I didn't buy the gun."

"Where did you get it then?"

"Someone gave it to me."

"_Who_?"

He avoided her eyes and chose to look down at the table instead. "Can I go back to work yet?"

"No," she growled, "I'd rather hold you for awhile and charge you with attempted murder and double homicide."

"_Double Homicide?_" he exclaimed in outrage. She nodded. "Who's?"

"Riyuki and Arashi Sachiru," she hissed as the door opened. A smirking Renge came in holding a piece of paper. "Oh wonderful. The warrant's here."

Yora's face paled. "What warrant?"

"The warrant to impound your car, take a sample of your DNA, and take your fingerprints. Roll up your sleeves." He did as asked as she tossed a blank piece of paper down in front of him and inspected his arms, seeing deep scratches on his arms directly matching the ones Nekozawa said might be there. "Write your name and occupation on that as well." He shot a glare in her direction. She stared him down until he did as he was told.

The red-head took a q-tip from the kit she'd brought with her. "Open," she said softly. The blonde begrudgingly opened his mouth. Renge swabbed his mouth, sticking the q-tip in a small cylinder and putting the lid on. Then she took out an ink pad and print cards, taking his hand and pressing each finger to the ink pad then the card in sequence.

"Run that against the prints on the rocks and the DNA from the nails," Haruhi told her quietly. Renge nodded, smiling triumphantly as she turned on her heel and left. "I'm taking you down Yora," the brunette whispered dangerously, "I'm taking you down because you tried to tear my team apart."

She followed her colleague out the door without another word.

– _June 1st – 11:57 AM – _

"_What_?" Haruhi exclaimed in absolute outrage.

"The DNA from the nails is a match but not the fingerprints. Riyuki's murderer was someone else," the twins repeated again. "Handwriting matches. White must be Rory's son. The hair also shares 5 alleles with him."

Her eyes flashed. "His... His _brother _is going to send Kyoya to jail for his ex-girlfriend's murder?" The twins eyes were both downcast. "Why the _hell _isn't that computer working yet?"

"It's more complex then you think, Haruhi," Hikaru retorted, slightly irritated with the brunette's lecturing.

"And the tapes?" she asked, rounding on Kaoru.

"Still working on it, Haruhi. You can't expect us to be supermen! We can only do so much at one time!"

"Haruhi." She turned around with a glare in the direction of the speaker. "You're out of time. And you're late." Haruhi spared a glance at her watch and swore under her breath. _11:59. _"I'll drive you to the court house."

She nodded at Ken with a sigh then pointed at the twins. "Keep working. Any sign that would prove Kyoya's innocence you bring _straight _to the court room." They nodded obediently. "And... I'm sorry for snapping." The two of them smirked as she turned on her heel.

– _June 1st – 12:11 PM – _

Haruhi walked into the court room with an apologetic air, faking a smile to cover up her inner fury. "Sorry I'm late, Your Honor," she murmured to the judge with a bow.

"Fujioka," said judge replied with a nod as she took a seat beside her partner.

"Haruhi," Kyoya hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

"Twins are working on it," she muttered out of the corner of her mouth.

"I saw the news."

She smirked lightly. "Yora tried to kill me. The bastard. He's in custody."

"Why aren't I free then?"

"Someone else killed Riyuki, though Yora's probably a co-conspirator. Twins are working on who exactly. Though I have a feeling I know who. Yora would only kill to cover for one person. And that's his best friend."

"If the two of you are quite finished," the judge snapped. Haruhi bowed her head in apology. "How does the accused plea?"

"Not guilty," the lawyer replied swiftly, glancing in Kyoya's direction. She had to stall for a bit. "Your Honor. Recent evidence has come up that Ohtori-san did not murder Arashi Hirota. We'd like to get that charge cleared."

The judge sighed. "Very well. Present the evidence."

"The weapon that Ohtori-san has allegedly bought and registered – a 9millimeter M-9 Beretta – was not bought by him but an imposter. This imposter is still under investigation but as the news states I was shot at with a Beretta from a car, license plate BCG-573, belonging to Yora White."

"And this pertains to the murder how?"

"Your Honor, DNA was found underneath the fingernails of Arashi Hirota by head coroner Umehito Nekozawa. Skin and blood cells. We took a sample of White's DNA and compared it. They were a 100% match. The weapon used to kill Hirota was an M-9 Beretta. However, seeing as a person bought the weapon while pretending to be Ohtori-san it can logically be concluded that Ohtori-san did _not _commit that particular murder. The person who did is in custody already."

The judge nodded at her. "Reasonable enough. Second murder charge waved. However, the first one still stands unless you have evidence to disprove that one as well."

Haruhi closed her eyes and opened her mouth, prepared to say that she didn't when the doors burst open and a pair of huffing twins ran into the room. "We have evidence to disprove that!" they called, hurrying forward. Haruhi fought to keep the grin off her face, looking at her partner.

"For heaven's sake! Who are you two?"

"Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin!" they introduced, bowing quickly.

"And this evidence is what exactly?"

Hikaru and Kaoru grinned wickedly and started their finishing-each-other's-sentences game. Kaoru started off. "The take out box that Sachiru ate out of had arsenic the bottom as well as Ohtori's fingerprints."

Hikaru took off from there, "_However_, upon the inspection of the _plates _no arsenic was found at all."

"Ohtori claimed that he and Sachiru had lunch but _shared _one box."

"Why would he poison himself?"

"His medical records also show that he hasn't been to the doctor or hospital for anything other than the regular check up required by the department in over 8 months."

"If he had poisoned the food, he would have needed to get a heavy-metal poisoning antidote from the hospital immediately."

They paused for a moment to catch their breath, allowing Haruhi to provide what she had. "A hair follicle found on the doughnut box does _not _match Ohtori-san's DNA but shares 5 alleles with Yora White. And the prints that were found on the tool used to print various things throughout this case were _not _his but an unknown person's. Someone planted said device in his apartment in order to frame him."

"The handwriting on both the note in Haruhi's apartment and the note from the box of doughnuts," Hikaru started off again, having caught his breath.

Kaoru continued, "Originally we used a program that would shift the handwriting into a sample of Ohtori's."

"It matched and the scrawl was determined to be written by Kyoya Ohtori in a slightly deformed manner to hide the true person's identity."

"However when we investigated further we realized that the way he would have had to bend his wrist to write it in that way would not be possible for him due to the serious case of carpal tunnel he has in both wrists."

"Upon comparing it to the suspect in custody the handwriting has been confirmed to be Yora White's, making us believe he's a co-conspirator in the crime."

Kyoya looked very smug as he sat there, listening to his innocence fly out the twins mouths. Haruhi let herself smile at him a bit. "Is that all?" the judge stated with a slightly annoyed tone. Both twins nodded. "That doesn't explain his fingerprints on the arsenic container."

"We have an explanation for that as well!" they both chorused. Kaoru started this time. "The container that holds the arsenic was not the original one."

"It was an old vitamin bottle that the label for the arsenic was transferred from to make it _look _like the original."

"Said vitamin bottle came from Ohtori's trash. The real killer must have used gloves to leave only Ohtori's fingerprints and then dropped the bottle off at the department."

Haruhi felt like she could dance for joy and kiss both of them right there as they finished their long winded speech. "Anything else you'd like to question, Your Honor?" she asked politely.

She threw her hands in the air. "I've heard enough. All charges waved," she said with a strict tone. She had a smile on her face though. "You have some very loyal colleagues and friends Ohtori. Consider yourself lucky."

Kyoya's grin matched the twins' and Haruhi's. "I feel _very _lucky, Your Honor," he replied, standing. First thing he did was pull his partner into his arms and hold her tightly. "Thank you, Haruhi," he whispered in her ear.

"You're welcome," she breathed back as she returned the hug. "You owe me lunch for the next month by the way." He smirked as he pulled away from her. Then, arm around her shoulders, the two headed out of the court house and back to the twins' waiting vehicle.

They had a murderer to catch.

–

**A/N: Third chapter that I've written in a four day time period. Gooood. I need a liiiiife. **

**Anyways... For the more... recent... author's note. I would apologize for being so lazy but I can't help that. I've also been oddly busy lately. I should have put this up earlier. And I should have finished another AN or LD already. Sorry. **

**Kudos to: Enigmaticrose4, JollyElfDance554, idontseepenguins, NightShroud, BlackestNight Brightest Day, and Koharu Veddette. LOVE YOU GUYSSSSSS. **

**I think... I'm going to finish LD or another AN before I post the next OTHD. Even if it kills me I'm going to. I'M GOING TO. Because this is just ridiculous. :D? **


	11. Chapter 10: Confession

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl _

_Chapter 10 – Confession_

– _June 1st – 1:11 PM – _

"I'll leave White for you to break," Haruhi said with a smirk while she clapped Kyoya on the back. "I had my fun by scaring the shit out of him for trying to kill me. Your turn."

"Gladly," he growled in reply. He pointed at each of the twins in turn. "Kaoru, tapes. Hikaru, computer. Thank the other three for me. Get Mori and Hunny on his car and Renge on anything else needed."

"Got it, Boss!" they chimed, running off toward their labs as the 32-year-old pushed his way into the interrogation room.

"Yora White! Rumor has it you tried to kill my partner. _And _you used a weapon that _someone _mysteriously bought and registered under _my _name," Kyoya grunted softly, holding a glare in the older man's direction. Behind the two-way glass, Haruhi was smirking as she watched Yora shake in his seat.

"I-I didn't buy that gun! Someone gave it to me!" he stuttered, face tinged with red.

"And who would that be?" The blonde stayed stubbornly silent. "Hmm. Let's start over, shall we? Your DNA was found under the nails of Arashi Hirota who was killed by a shot to the chest. From a _M-9 Beretta_. The same weapon was used to shoot at Haruhi. Explanation?"

"I didn't buy the gun!"

"How about this then? You were circled in a picture in _blood _along with Riyuki Sachiru, Karin Ronito, and Yukito Warami. Care to explain that?"

"Coincidence!" he huffed.

"I think not," Kyoya spat, "Riyuki is dead, Karin is missing, you killed Riyuki's _brother _and Yukito still remains a mystery. What is your relationship with him?"

"He's my best friend!"

"Who you would kill for, correct?" Again he was silent. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. I'd kill for my best friend too. I'd kill for my partner as well. It just means that you're protective of them."

"I want a lawyer."

Kyoya offered Yora a cold smile. "You got it, _White_."

– _June 1st – 1:38 PM – _

"Alright," Kaoru said, standing across the table from Haruhi and Kyoya. Various small baggies holding DNA samples and fingerprints were spread on the surface between them. He pointed at a hair on the left. "That is the hair from the doughnut box." He shifted his finger to the skin and blood sample. "That's the stuff found under Arashi's fingernails." His finger moved to one swab. "That's Yora's DNA." A second swab. "That's Riyuki's." A third swab. "That's Arashi's."

"Ok... And?" Haruhi prompted.

The younger twin picked up the first swab and set it directly above the skin and blood. "These two are an 100% match." He put a finger on the hair. "That is yet to be identified."

"We know this already, Kaoru," Kyoya muttered, looking slightly irritated.

"I'm just getting started!" the red-head exclaimed, "Yora shares 8 alleles with Rory Miles. Meaning he shares 4 or 5 with Karin Ronito. He's at least her half-brother." He pushed Yora's two samples to the side. "You know what's funny?"

He pushed the hair over with Yora's DNA. "These two, share 4 alleles. Half-brothers _at least _whether by the same mother or the same father. However, Karin's DNA and the hair share _no _alleles." He pulled out a picture of Karin and placed it on the other side of Yora's DNA.

"What about Riyuki and Arashi's? They're brother and sister."

"_That _is where you're wrong," Hikaru called from where he was still working on the work computer.

Kaoru scowled at him. "Stealing my show!" His twin snickered a bit as he continued, "Riyuki and Arashi share _eight _alleles. She's his _mother_."

Kyoya's mouth fell open in disbelief. Haruhi stared at the younger Hitachiin then looked at her partner. "Did _you _know that?"

"Judging by the look on his face, I'd say not," Hikaru laughed from over at the computer then shrieked when he got shocked.

"That's not all though!" Kaoru added while Kyoya stood there in shock. "Guess who else Arashi _also _shares 8 alleles with?" Haruhi's eyes widened as he moved Riyuki and Arashi's DNA directly next to the unknown sample. "Riyuki's killer is Arashi's father."

Kyoya and Haruhi were gone before he could complete his sentence.

– _June 1st – 1:51 PM – _

"Kyoya!" Haruhi exclaimed, jogging to keep up with his fast stride.

"Riyuki's 30, Arashi's 17. Riyuki was 13 when she had Arashi. I bet you _anything _the guy raped her," the man next to her growled. "The guy who did this is White's brother. Arashi and Riyuki were probably going to expose him. That gives him motive for murder!"

"You don't know that!"

"We already had evidence that he killed him. Now we have a motive."

"Let _me _interrogate him then!" He stopped in his tracks and looked at her as if she were crazy. "I'm calmer than you. If you go in there yelling accusations left and right then he's just going to be disinclined to share anything. Let me talk to him."

"That man tried to kill you, Haruhi!"

"I know that! He can't very easily kill me if you're watching in the next room though can he?" she retorted, raising her voice to match the volume of his.

He sighed exasperatedly and stared at her carefully. "Fine," he murmured finally, "Fine."

"Glad that your anger doesn't affect your judgment," she snorted in reply, continuing toward the interrogation room with him trailing behind. "He has a lawyer now, right?" Her partner nodded. "Alright. Let's get this show going." She slipped through the door of the room, seating herself across from him. Yora glowered at her as she regarded him in silence for a moment. "Have any siblings, Yora?"

"No." His lawyer shushed him.

Haruhi turned her eyes to the woman sitting next to him. Curly brown hair framed a face with sharp hazel eyes, pointed nose, and thin lips. "We already have the forensics to prove that he shot and killed Arashi Hirota. I'm just asking about Riyuki Sachiru's murderer," she shot at the other lawyer calmly. She turned her gaze back to Yora. "We know you have siblings. You share 8 alleles with Rory Miles who is Karin Ronito's mother. That makes her your half-sister at least. Riyuki's killer shares 4 alleles with you, making him at least your half-brother. All I'm asking is who the brother is."

He shook his head and kept his mouth shut stubbornly. "Was he the one that gave you the gun?" He nodded slowly. Haruhi bowed her head briefly then looked up at him. "Did you know that Arashi Hirota was your brother's son?"

His face remained carefully blank. "And did you know that Riyuki was his mother?"

Kyoya slipped into the room and strode toward her, whispering in her ear, "Sheriff's gotten the judge to approve to get his sentence halved if he gives information on Riyuki's murder." She nodded and he left again.

"Yora, we can cut your sentence in half if you provide the information we need," she murmured, "That's 20 to 30 years cut down to 10 to 15."

He looked at the woman next to him. "A few minutes to converse please," she mumbled. Haruhi nodded, a let herself out respectively.

Kyoya met her in the hall. She sighed. "It's gotta be Yukito. He's the only one that was circled who isn't accounted for. Unfortunately, a hunch and a face circled by a dying teenager in his final minutes isn't enough to get a warrant."

"In other words we better hope that White takes this next deal."

Haruhi nodded, shivering slightly with the memories that were coming back to haunt her. "When I told Yora why I left Yukito, he called me a liar. Said I was imagining things," she mumbled, casting her eyes to the floor as they walked down to the evidence garage. She shook her head, laughing to herself. "I should've gone straight to you."

Her partner was completely silent. All the way until they got to the evidence garage. Kaoru was set up with the gun store surveillance videos while Hikaru had moved in with the computer that he was still working on. Mori, Hunny, and Renge were all going over the car. "Gun was in the glove box," Renge called over.

"Video right here," Kaoru added. Haruhi watched as he replayed the bit. "The best picture I can get is this side view right... here!" He paused it. It was a shadowy, grainy picture. She shook her head while she squinted at it. "I can't get it any clearer than that. Sorry."

"I can't tell who it is," she muttered, "But it's definitely not this guy." She shoved her thumb in Kyoya's direction. "Jaw's too low, nose isn't sharp enough, and hair's too long to be him. I have no clue what Yukito looks like now either. Dammit."

"Haru-chan!" Hunny called, "Fingerprints on the gun are White's but there's another set that matches the ones from the printing tool!"

She nodded. "Son of a bitch was telling the truth," Haruhi mumbled under her breath. "Whoever Yora's brother is, is Riyuki's killer." She looked at Kyoya.

"Got it!" Hikaru yelled, standing as the computer screen hopped to life. The brunette nodded at him and smirked.

"Think we've given them enough time to chat?" she asked her partner.

"Think so," he muttered in reply.

_'Back to the lion's den,' _Haruhi thought sarcastically.

– _June 1st – 2:35 PM – _

"We'll take it," Yora's lawyer said clearly as soon as she set foot in the room again.

"Good," Haruhi murmured, taking a deep breath. "Did you know that Arashi was your brother's and Riyuki's son?" He shook his head. "Can you tell me what you know about him?"

He averted his eyes then spoke. "I know, that he was up to something. He was even when we were teenagers. Snuck around and got into all sorts of trouble. I'm kind of amazed that he hasn't gotten into serious legal trouble until now. I didn't know he had a son though."

Haruhi pursed her lips together for a moment then asked her next question. "Riyuki was... 13 when she had Arashi. The only thing that we can think of to explain that is rape. Do you know if he raped anyone?"

Yora stared ahead blankly. "I... I knew he was capable of it."

"So, did Arashi know?"

"I believe so. He attacked me. Said I was a murderer. I think... He thought that I was the one that killed Riyuki." He paused then blinked a few times, looking down at the table. "If... If I knew he was my nephew... I wouldn't have done it."

"Why'd you kill him then?" she asked softly. "If you didn't know he was your nephew and you had no personal beefs with him. Why'd you do it?"

He paused. "Can you guess?"

"To protect your brother." He nodded. Haruhi sighed.

"And Karin?"

"Karin disappeared. I had nothing to do with it. I have a sneaking suspicion that she's not coming back though. She knew something about him. I don't know what but she did."

"Alright. You had nothing to do with Riyuki's murder either. Besides the notes?" He nodded. "Your brother made you write the notes?" Again that small nod of the head. "Why did he murder Riyuki?"

"She knew the same thing Karin did. Like I said, I don't know what it is. He just asked me to help him. I honestly had no clue that Riyuki was going to end up dead. I didn't know what he was up to. Thought he was playing pranks like he used to in high school."

"He... tried to put it all on others. My partner first but when we disproved it then it would all be on you. He knew that. But you still haven't said his name."

Yora bit his nails nervously and put his face in in hands, muttering something inaudible. Haruhi looked at him confusedly as her phone beeped in her pocket indicating a text message. She ignored it for the moment. "You already know don't you?"

She nodded slowly. "A hunch. Yukito Warami?"

"Yes. Yes, it was him. We share the same father. I've known him since we were kids."

"You just wanted to protect him," she murmured softly, "But that protectiveness led you down this path. Thank you, Yora." She stood, nodding at the glass where her partner was watching. Flipping open her cellphone she headed out the door.

– _June 1st – 2:53 PM – _

"Haruhi! Kyoya! I got the computer!" Hikaru yelled over triumphantly. "You should really see this. One hell of a shadow she held over this guy." The two of them hurried over and looked over the older twin's shoulder. "She emailed herself these photos."

They popped up on screen and Haruhi felt her breakfast rise up. She lurched for the trash can. Kyoya just stared at them while his partner emptied her stomach. "I knew it," she choked from down next to the trash. "I knew it as soon as his name came up. That _bastard_."

Kyoya knelt down next to her. "Is that the kind of stuff he did to you?" he asked is a low voice. He sounded incredibly pissed. She shook her head quickly. "You're sure?" She nodded, staring at the floor blankly, as he stood again. "I'm gonna kill that bastard."

Haruhi shot him a look, noticing the looks that the twins were giving her. "That guy... Did... _that _to you?" Hikaru gritted out between his teeth, fists clenched at his sides.

"No," she groaned loudly, pushing herself up off the floor with shaky legs. "He was my boyfriend. He lost his temper. I left him. End of story." She turned to her partner. "What are you waiting for? Go get that bastard."

He shook his head. "I'll end up killing him."

"_I_'m not a cop. And I can't face him."

"If you aren't there, I'll end up killing him."

She sighed exasperatedly. "I _can't_."

"Can too, Haruhi." Shichi appeared in the doorway, carting an extra gun in his hand. "Kyoya, give her your .45." Kyoya gave him an odd look but did as he said, carefully handing Haruhi his weapon who looked at it in bewilderment. The Sheriff handed him a 9mil Glock. "Your gun is better broken in than hers. I figure she can use yours for now. Already registered. Told you I'd get you a gun and a badge, Haruhi."

She smirked and her partner looked between the two of them with his mouth slightly open. "Thank you, Ken," she muttered, pleased with herself as she felt a fresh load of confidence rush through her.

"Now can you go get him?"

"You bet. Let's go, Kyoya."

She grabbed her Bluetooth and slid it into place on her ear, rushing out the door. "Track his credit records," Kyoya growled at the twins. He muttered something else inaudible under his breath and checked his belt for his gun. "He buys anything that constitutes leaving the country and you tell Haruhi." The red-heads nodded while he ran after his partner.

– _June 1st – 3:19 PM – _

"I can't believe she didn't tell me he was her kid," Kyoya growled as they raced for Yukito's apartment. "Sure as hell explains a lot though. Was always more worried about him than she should have been if he was only her brother."

"Kyoya, some things women just don't want people to know," Haruhi mumbled.

"Like the fact that your boyfriend _beat _you and you didn't report it?" He glanced at her, seriously looking pissed off.

"For crying out loud! I've learned my lesson already! Will you just drop it? Please? It was a year and a half ago. Just... leave it behind." She shot a glare at him.

"I'm just saying," he grumbled, stepping harder on the gas and turning a sharp corner. A small flurry of cop cars were following.

She pressed the button on the side of her Bluetooth as her phone started ringing, flashing Hikaru's number on the caller ID. "Yeah?"

"Found a journal entry on her computer. Password protected but I cracked it pretty easily," the older twin called. It sounded like she was on speaker phone like she was a lot of the time with them.

And sure enough, Kaoru continued a moment later, "White was telling the truth. Karin's mentioned. The two of them both knew the same thing."

"Warami was looking at 20 years with all this stuff alone. Now with murder, he'll be put away for life."

Haruhi nodded, glancing at Kyoya. "Karin's disappearance wasn't coincidental," she mumbled, "She knew the same thing, hinted at Riyuki with it. Yukito probably killed her to shut her up but Riyuki started her own investigation."

"That's what it's looking like," the twins both commented simultaneously. "The other thing is a charge on his debit card," Kaoru muttered, sounding slightly angry.

"What charge?" she demanded quickly.

"He bought a plane ticket," the older twin grunted.

"To Beijing, China."

"From Narita Airport."

"International Airways."

"Looks like he's already there."

"Flight leaves at 4 o'clock," the two finished quickly.

Her eyes widened. "Shit! Kyoya! Turn around! Airport! Bastard's trying to leave the country!" Kyoya grunted and checked his mirrors before screeching into a U-turn. "Must've gotten wind of Yora being arrested and made a break for it." The cop cars behind them whipped around more carefully.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath.

– _June 1st – 3:26 PM – _

"How're we going to do this?" Haruhi asked quietly as he slammed on the breaks in front of the airport. "Don't exactly want to go in there with guns blazing and expect him not to make a break for it."

He smirked and pulled a ring out of his glove box, tossing it to her. "I was thinking undercover married couple going on a romantic vacation to China," he replied. She sighed and rolled her eyes but slipped the ring onto her ring finger anyway.

"So sudden, _dearest_," she muttered sarcastically, giving him a look.

He snorted in amusement and pushed open his car door. "Make sure your – or rather _my –_ gun's covered by your sweater." He took off his jacket, unbuttoned a few buttons on the front of his shirt and grabbed a more casual one from the back of his car. He tossed her a loose black cardigan. "Hmm. Suits you, _Honey_," he commented as she changed her jacket as well.

"Do you always keep this stuff in your car?" she asked him as he pulled out a small duffel bag.

"Only on special cases," he retorted with sarcasm laced in his voice. "I'd have bullet-proof vests too if this weren't so short notice." He nodded at the other officers who were also dressed like they were going on vacation. "Let's go." He slung an arm around Haruhi's shoulders and dragged her along.

They approached the front desk at a leisurely pace. "We'd like a couple of tickets to Beijing," he stated with a charming smile. "International Airlines if possible. Going on a second honeymoon, aren't we dear?" He gazed at his partner, who smiled and nodded while he slipped his badge across the surface discreetly. "Shut down the flight," he added in a low whisper while Haruhi looked around a bit. The eyes of the girl behind the counter widened and she nodded quickly.

"Here you are, Sir," she muttered calmly, slipping two pieces of paper across to him.

"Thank you."

Haruhi pressed the talk button on the side of her Bluetooth to answer the twins' call. "Hikaru, can you track his cellphone?"

"If I have the number and if it's turned on," came the short reply. She rattled off a number as Kyoya took her hand and pulled her along. Her Bluetooth was hidden beneath her hair and she spoke in a low mutter.

"Haruhi," Kyoya murmured as he showed his badge to the security officers by the metal detector. "do you have any clue how much I've been looking forward to this trip?"

She rose an eyebrow and smiled. "I can guess," she replied softly with her eye on his face, gripping his hand tighter. The security guard gave a short nod and let them through, briefly turning off the metal detector so their guns wouldn't set it off. She turned her eyes to her surroundings, noticing a familiar head of dark hair disappearing in the crowd.

"Haruhi," Kaoru said through the earpiece, "he's heading to his airline."

"We've cleared security. And I've got him in sight," she mumbled in reply, releasing her partner's hand to place it on the gun on her belt. She nudged Kyoya. "That way." She jerked her head in the direction that Yukito was heading. He nodded and followed her lead, heading off in a circle from her, his hand also reaching for his weapon.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom," he muttered to her as he left her side. They advanced slowly, several yards apart. Haruhi caught the dark-haired man and spun him around, firmly gripping her gun in her hand. The guy gave her a bewildered look but it wasn't their guy.

"Shit," she muttered, "Hikaru! Connect me to Kyoya's Bluetooth will you?" Silence was on the other line until she heard her partner answer. "Kyoya, it wasn't him. Keep looking." Before she could hear his reply a hand grabbed her right hand with the gun and an arm wrapped around her neck.

"Miss me, Haruhi?" a sickly voice rasped in her ear.

–

**A/N: Ohoho! Haruhi's got a gun! (For some reason... That just makes me shudder. Almost as much as the thought of a pissed Kyoya with a gun.) But what's this that's happening now? Oh my! You'll have to wait at least three days to find out! (Even if the next chapter's only 3 pages -COUGH-) **

**Upon the request of Suess MD to restate the evidence. Here it is. (Oh boy. Time to test MY memory.) **

**Riyuki's last call was Tamaki (considered irrelevant later)**

**Her last meal was take out and donuts **

**Traces of arsenic in stomach**

**Yora's handwriting on the note from Haruhi's apartment and Riyuki's donuts**

**Unknown hair on the donut box (Which is probably obvious who's it is NOW)**

**Unknown fingerprints on donut box, money in Arashi's pocket, and bullet casing from his murder (Determined to be from the rock-like device.) **

**DNA under Arashi's nails is Yora's **

**Photograph in Arashi's hand with Karin, Riyuki, Yukito, and Yora circled in his blood.**

**Kyoya's hair on Riyuki's clothing (Also determined to be irrelevant) **

**9millimeter M-9 Beretta registered under Kyoya's name as Arashi's murder weapon. (Determined to be used by Yora.) **

**Anonymous arsenic container dropped off with Kyoya's prints. (Actually an old vitamin bottle with the arsenic LABEL.) **

**Gun store tapes prove that someone impersonated Kyoya to buy the gun. **

**Yeah... There's a lot of it. Though... Now it's pretty obvious who did it, hmm? **

**Kudos to: Enigmaticrose4, JollyElfDance554, SisterFriend, Raines, 123Aqua123, idontseepenguins, Suess MD, BlackestNight BrightestDay, and Lizzy-Chan-InuYasha-Fan. **

**I meant to have this out days ago. But my internet is being agonizingly slow. Mom's probably going to end up calling our provider soon since it's getting annoying for all of us. Ugh. Hope it made sense. Something just seemed incredibly off about this entire chapter but I dunno what. **


	12. Chapter 11: Choices

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl_

_Chapter 11 - Choices_

– _June 1st – 3:45 PM – _

Haruhi let out a soft gasp and tried to yank her hand and gun out of his grasp, jerking one leg back. "Found him," she managed to rasp into her Bluetooth as she tried to free herself. The arm tightened around her neck, choking her for a moment.

She caught sight of Kyoya looking their way. Her gun was wrenched away from her and held to her head instead. She closed her eyes for a moment, still struggling. "Stop. Moving," Yukito growled. She froze, staring at her partner with a look of fear on her face. He was hurrying toward them while people started noticing the hostage and the screaming began. "One more step and I'll blow her brains out, Ohtori!" he yelled. Kyoya stopped in his tracks, pointing his gun at them calmly.

Haruhi fought to remain calm. "Haruhi! Haruhi! What's happening?" The twins' voices in her ear were panicked. Her heart rate was shooting through the roof and her breathing was starting to become frantic.

"Let her go, Warami," Kyoya called, keeping his eye steadily on her face.

"This is how this is going to work!" Yukito shouted back, "I'm going to go get on that plane with your _dear _Haruhi! When I get there, the plane will start and I'll tell it where to go! Then I may or may not return her to you alive depending on how good you are! I leave, you don't follow! Got it?"

Kyoya looked at her. She gave a small shrug of her shoulders and a bewildered look in return. "Alright!" he finally grunted.

"Take off your earpiece and throw it to him," her captor hissed in her ear. She did as she was told, pulling it off and tossing it at her partner. "Order your agents to lower their weapons!"

Kyoya cast a look at the ceiling and then did as was asked, muttering into his own Bluetooth to the twins and the Sheriff afterwords. Yukito started walking backward, pulling Haruhi along with him. He glanced back to make sure he knew where he was going. "I'll tell you a secret," he whispered hoarsely, "You aren't leaving this airport alive." He let out harsh laughter. "As soon as I'm home free, I'm shooting you through the head. I told you I'd kill you, Haruhi."

_'Dammit. I knew this was a bad idea,' _she thought angrily. Kyoya walked a little to fast at one point and she let out a strangled noise as the arm tightened around her neck to choking point. "You're killing her, Ohtori!"

He stopped again and the arm loosened. If only he could get a clear shot at Warami he could free his partner. But he was using her as a human shield and there was no way to shoot him without possibly hurting her. "Kyoya!" Ken's voice cut in between the twins' frantic ones, "What the _hell _is going on over there?"

"Haruhi's been taken hostage," he muttered, keeping his eyes on the two of them as they slowly made their way to Warami's flight.

Haruhi had come to a realization. No matter what happened here, she was most likely going to die. Whether it was by shot to the head or shot to somewhere else by a colleague.

She'd rather have the colleague shoot her. At least then she'd have a chance to live. "Do you really think you're going to get away with this, Yukito?" she hissed.

He cackled softly. "Of course. You never would have caught me if Yora hadn't talked, I bet."

This time, she snorted to keep her in laughter of irony. "You wanna bet? We have your DNA on the box of donuts _you _poisoned with arsenic to kill Riyuki. And we have _your _prints on the device you used to try and frame Kyoya."

"You don't know that they're mine."

"You aren't exactly acting innocent. Leaving the country, taking hostages. Let me go and maybe we can talk out a deal."

He spluttered momentarily, spraying spittle over her face. "A deal? _Deal_? Deals with you people mean confessing to every crime you've ever committed in return for 5 years off all those charges," he spat angrily.

"You know what else we had? Pictures. Of you. And your students," she muttered harshly. "Miss using your girlfriends as punching bags?"

"Shut up!" he yelled.

"Karin found out and she was going to go to the police. So you killed her and made it look like she had disappeared." He shouted more demands for her to shut up. "And when Riyuki got curious and started investigating as well, you killed her too. She was going to rat on the fact that you _raped _her 18 years ago along with the sexual assault on students. That gave you all the more motive to get rid of her."

"_SHUT UP!_" He unlocked the safety of the glock that was pressed to her head. She fell silent while Kyoya looked at her while she was crazy. She briefly assessed hers and Yukito's height difference.

"Your actions are as good as a confession," she whispered, making eye contact with her partner. She looked down at her stomach then at him again. _'Shoot,' _she mouthed. He gave a little shake of his head, talking into his Bluetooth calmly.

"She wants me to shoot her," he mumbled, gazing at his partner and trying to keep his heart rate under control. Shichi sighed on the other end while the twins shouted in outrage.

Haruhi mouthed again, _'Shoot. Shoot me to shoot him.' _

"She's serious." He stared at her as Yukito's lips started moving again with things he couldn't hear. She replied sharply, also inaudibly.

The Sheriff laughed with disbelief. "Brave little lawyer," he muttered under his breath.

"What the hell do I do, Ken?"

The line was silent safe for a few starts of sentences that just ended in heavy sighs. "I don't know. Follow your instincts, Kyoya."

"My instincts are fucking shot when it comes to this!" he growled angrily. "I can't shoot her!"

Shichi sighed for the millionth time in the last 10 minutes. "You still have the 9millimeter right?"

"Yes."

"Good. If you shoot her there's a good chance that it'll go straight through her and hit him."

"What? Are you kidding?" the twins both shouted. Kyoya could vaguely hear Hunny wailing, "Haru-chan!" in the background as well. He growled under his breath. They were almost to the walk on.

"He's not going to let Haruhi free as easily as he says he is. She's consenting to it. I say, shoot her in the abdomen or shoulder, it'll most likely go through her and hit him. Stomach's more likely to go through though. Less bone. He'll drop his weapon then you can take him in and rush her to the hospital," Ken rationalized over the booming protests in the background. Kyoya sighed exasperatedly. "Look at it this way, Kyoya. You shoot her, she has a chance of living. He shoots her, she's a dead woman."

"And what about that chance that she dies?" he bit back harshly, "What then? I turn in my badge and feel the guilt over the fact that I was the one that killed her biting me every day for the rest of my life?"

"You have to take that chance."

"Kyoya, dammit!" Haruhi yelled. Yukito screamed for her to shut up again. "Shoot!" Kyoya looked at his partner of eight years, struggling in the grasp of the enemy.

"Is there an ambulance on the way?" he asked finally, into his Bluetooth.

"Sent one over 5 minutes ago."

"Good." He swallowed dryly. "Good. Call Tamaki and her father."

"Kyoya!" the twins exclaimed with complete disbelief, "You can't be serious!"

He ignored them and raised his voice to talk to Haruhi and Yukito. "Warami! You let her go and we'll wave the assault charges!"

The bastard laughed. "Oh really? Haruhi, how many years will land me in jail for that?" he asked loudly, pulling his arm tighter to strangle her a bit more. She gasped for air. "15? 20? That's what I thought! I don't intend to go to prison, Ohtori!"

"Well, you murdered two people, technically three, sexually assaulted at least four of your students, tried to frame a Tokyo PD detective, and now you're holding someone hostage! You can't exactly _not _go to jail with a record like that!" he yelled back, "Better 20 years than life or the death penalty!"

Yukito actually seemed to mull this over for a moment. "Wipe all charges or she dies!" he called defiantly. Kyoya took a few steps forward faster then he had been to lessen the distance between them. Haruhi was mouthing at him again. Mouthing at him to shoot her. A growl of frustration came out from between gritted teeth.

"Kyoya, shoot her," Shichi finally uttered softly with a sigh. "That bastard's not going to give up and she's consenting. She knows the risks. Shoot her."

One of Japan's top investigators swallowed then called to his partner, "You'll be fine, Haruhi! I promise!" He didn't wait for Yukito's doubtful laughter. Just watched her nod her head and pulled the trigger.

–

**A/N: The End! Haha! (No not really. I just felt the need to put this ONE scene as a single barely-three-page chapter.) Enjoy the lovely little cliff hanger I've left you with for the next week since I'm going to camp Monday. HAH! **

**Actually... I might just wake up early before I leave and post it then. That way it won't be TOO terrible and I have somewhere to write from in my notebook. I know... I took longer than three days. But I was seriously considering doing a bit of a different scene then this one. Decided against it in the end though. **

**And yes... It's only just over 3 pages. Lol. **

**Kudos to: BunniTrulove, Suess MD, BlackestNight BrightestDay, JollyElfDance554, idontseepenguins, Raines, Enigmaticrose4, and Koharu Veddette! **


	13. Chapter 12: Waiting

_Of The Highest Degree _

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl_

_Chapter 12 - Waiting_

– _June 1st – 4:10 PM – _

"_You'll be fine, Haruhi! I promise!" _

_BAM! _

_She stumbled backward at the same time Yukito did. He dropped his weapon, looking down at his bleeding lower abdomen in disbelief. Haruhi stood for a moment in shock then brought her hands to her stomach with wide eyes boring into his. _

– _June 4th – 8:40 PM – _

Kyoya shook his head to clear it as the nurse came in. "Are you sure that you don't want something to eat, Ohtori-sama?" she asked kindly, worry clearly etched on her face. He shook his head in reply, loosely holding onto the hand of the brunette lying on the hospital bed. He turned back to his dazed state in a manner of seconds.

– _June 1st – 4:11 PM – _

"_Haruhi!" he grunted as she grabbed hold of his arms, legs giving out. He lowered her to lie on her back carefully. "Ken! Is that damn ambulance here yet?" he yelled in question as he pulled off his jacket and pressed it to her wound. She let out a gasp. _

"_Kyoya," she rasped, cringing. Tight sobs started leaving her throat before she could stop them. "I-I didn't think... That-That getting sh-shot hurt... so bad." _

_He chuckled, slightly with guilt, slightly with anxiousness. He slipped her Bluetooth out of his pocket and pushed the talk button, pulling it over her ear. She smiled softly, distantly almost as the worried voices poured into her ear. "You'll be fine, you hear me?" _

_She shook her head slowly. "You... You know that... I-I won't," she gasped. "Te-Tell my Dad... I... I love him." _

"_You aren't going to die, Haruhi," he stated pointedly, trying to stay calm. "_I _shot you so that you wouldn't die. You'll tell him yourself." _

– _June 4th – 8:43 PM – _

She'd been prepared to die just to put Warami behind bars. He shifted his gaze to his partner's sleeping face. She was a lawyer and CSI by occupation but she was a cop by heart. He'd been stupid not to acknowledge that sooner.

And now he hadn't slept in three days.

– _June 1st – 4:13 PM – _

"_No, Ky-Kyoya," she mumbled, "You... you tell him. A-And tell Tama... ki... I'm-I'm sorry." _

"_What for?" the blonde's voice flooded into his and what he was sure was Haruhi's ears. He was at the department. Must've rushed there as soon as the twins had called him. _

"_Br-breaking your... heart," she choked, tears coming to her eyes. Paramedics were running their way with a stretcher on wheels. They arrived next to Haruhi in a manner of seconds. _

"_Haruhi," Tamaki said, laughing gently, "I understood. Your job is important to you. It had to come first. Solving murders does more good than spending extra time with me." _

_The bleeding woman sobbed harshly, causing her entire body to shudder hysterically. Kyoya left her side briefly to allow the paramedics to lift her onto the stretcher. "You'll be fine," he mumbled to her, stroking the hair away from her forehead as they ran toward the ambulance at the front of the airport. Tamaki was still chattering along with the twins. Distracting her from the pain and shock. _

_The paramedics wouldn't let him in the ambulance, saying it was too crowded. "Guys, say goodbye to Haruhi," he murmured into his Bluetooth, "I have to take her earpiece with me." _

_A chorus of goodbyes met his ears. He nodded at the paramedics, who tugged the small wireless device from her ear and handed it to him. The doors slammed shut and he turned to his vehicle as they sped off with his partner inside. _

– _June 4th – 8:56 PM – _

"How is she?" a soft voice came from the door way of the hospital room, half-startling him out of his thoughts. Kyoya turned to meet the gaze of his best friend.

"Stable. Sleeping. Same as she has been the last two days," he croaked in reply, rubbing his forehead with his free hand.

Tamaki regarded him silently for a moment before asking, "Have you slept at all, Kyoya?" He sighed and shook his head. "You really care about her a lot don't you?"

He nodded solemnly. "I'm a fool," he muttered, "I'm a damned fool." The blonde shook his head, smiling.

"You're not the only one who's worried. Remember that," he murmured, striding forward and handing him a sandwich. Kyoya pushed it away, unable to stomach even the thought of eating anything. "She wouldn't want you starving yourself on her behalf."

"I'm not hungry," he grumbled, bending down to lean his head against the mattress by Haruhi's waist. "And you're talking like she's already dead."

"Dead or merely sleeping, she still wouldn't want you starving yourself. Eat." The bespectacled man sighed exasperatedly and grabbed the sandwich from him, tearing open the paper and taking a huge bite out of it.

"Happy?" he grunted, glaring at his best friend. The blonde smiled and turned again.

"I'll be happy once you've taken care of yourself properly. Don't make me call your sister." Kyoya rolled his eyes as Tamaki chuckled and left him alone again.

– _June 1st – 4:20 PM – _

_Kyoya hurried into the hospital just in time to see Haruhi being rushed to ICU with a familiar head of black hair almost identical to his own. He stared after her then ran a hand through his hair and sat down in the waiting room. His hands shook. He'd shot his partner. If she died her blood would be in his hands. _

_Someone sat down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at his older brother. "What is she to you, Little Brother?" _

_He shook his head and shrugged Akito's hand off. "She's my partner. She has been for eight years. She dies, I quit," he muttered, consumed by thoughts and guilt. "If she dies... It's my fault." _

"_Yuiichi's taking care of her the best he can. I'm just wondering if I should call Fuyumi or Father." _

"_No," Kyoya deadpanned sharply, "I don't need Fuyumi or Father in this." _

_Akito chuckled lightly. "Has her family been informed?" His brother nodded slowly. _

"_Her father will be here in roughly 20 minutes. He's the only family she has." _

– _June 4th – 9:01 PM – _

"Kyoya-kun," Ranka's tired voice broke through his thoughts this time. He carried a bouquet of flowers to place by his daughter's bed. Kyoya felt guilt twist his heart again as the older man pressed a kiss to Haruhi's forehead. "Go home. I'll take care of her."

He shook his head furiously. "I'm not leaving her. When she wakes up, I'll be here."

"You haven't slept in three days," the red-head muttered gently. "I'll call you if anything changes."

"I'm not leaving," Kyoya grunted stubbornly.

"At least take a cot in the room then. That way you don't _have _to leave and you still get your sleep. There's no reason for you to torture yourself just because she's hurt." Had no one told her father that he was the one that hurt her? No, he was sure that the twins had filled that in. So, how did Ranka not hate him right now?

He let out a soft sigh and nodded, feeling exhaustion hit him at the thought of sleeping in a bed. A nurse scurried in briefly, looked at the two of them and mumbled, "Visiting hours are over." It was the same nurse that had come in earlier. She looked at him pointedly, knowing he wouldn't leave. Ranka had lied for him and said that he was Haruhi's fiancé the very first night just so he'd be able to stay with her. "A cot?"

All the raven-haired man could do was nod his head and look at the red-head standing on the other side of Haruhi's bed. "And you, Sir?" she asked Ranka.

He shook his head. "I just came with fresh flowers on my way to work," he murmured, glancing at Kyoya. "I know he'll take care of my daughter since he's been here three days without leaving." The nurse smiled softly. "I knew she chose a good man."

He just barely contained a snort of amused laughter as Ranka winked at him and left.

– _June 1__st__ – 5:00 PM – _

_Yuiichi came out of the swinging double doors looking grim which really couldn't be a very good sign. The grim look combined with the fact that they'd gone with no news for 40 minutes didn't help the nerves at all. _

_Everyone had shown up. Ranka. The twins. Hunny. Mori. Tamaki. Kasanoda. Nekozawa. Ken, despite his busy schedule. Even Renge, with her love-hate friendship with Haruhi. _

_Her father had been slightly angry with him when he had found out the cause of his daughter's current state had been a shot from the gun he had fired. The twins and Ken had been quick to help him out, even if Hikaru was mad at him for doing it as well. _

_But now with Yuiichi heading toward them, he felt his stomach churn and he suddenly felt _very _sick. Like Haruhi when she had seen the blackmail Riyuki had had against Yukito (whom he had later, very smugly, found that he had managed to shoot him right in the kidney and scraped his intestines a good one as well). _

_7 of the men and a single woman stood at his approach. Kyoya closed his eyes as his brother's news hit him. "She's... stable. But it's shaky on whether she'll make it through the night. Fujioka-san, can you come with me, please?" Ranka nodded, anxiously following the doctor down the hall. _

_Kyoya sat down heavily, hoping that Haruhi would make it through the night. That she'd live. Tamaki took a seat next to him. "She'll be fine, Kyoya. One bullet isn't enough to take her down. She's strong," he murmured in an attempt to relieve some of the guilt. _

"_She really is, Kyo-chan!" Hunny interjected with Mori humming in agreement behind him. Ken merely nodded, with a soft smile. He looked slightly guilty as well, knowing he'd been the one to give Kyoya the order to shoot. _

"_Should've seen her when she found out White was the one that shot at her. Scared the shit out of him," Kasanoda commented with a slight chuckle. _

_The twins were the silent ones. Renge as well, sitting there staring at the floor. Nekozawa was muttering what Kyoya could only guess were good luck spells for Haruhi under his breath. _

_Then the Sheriff spoke, a single phrase that said what everyone was thinking, "If she dies, we'll lose half the department's day shift won't we?" Kyoya's eyes shot up and stared at his superior for a moment then looked around at the heads that were slowly nodding. "Thought so. She wormed her way into all of your hearts despite Rule 13." _

_Hikaru and Kaoru scoffed lightly. "We never followed those rules anyway!" _

_Kyoya bitterly bit out a quote she had used against him in her own defense during their first case, "She's not completely a lawyer or completely a CSI. She's a mix of both. Not completely anything except completely undefined." _

_They all fell silent after that. _

– _June 4th – 10:32 PM – _

He couldn't sleep. As tired as he was, he just couldn't. He sighed and placed his arm over his eyes. After awhile he turned his face to Haruhi. "Who knew one day a bloody lawyer/CSI would keep me up for three days straight worrying about her?" he muttered under his breath before sitting up.

He stood and shuffled over to the chair next to her bed, sitting in it. It wasn't all that comfortable, but it was closer to her. The soft beeping of the machine behind him recorded a steady heart and breathing rate.

Why the hell hadn't she woken up yet? And had he really had no other choice but to shoot her in the first place? He'd tried to talk Warami out of the entire charade but could he had gotten them both out safely? And when the _hell _did he start listening to her anyway? She was his partner! Not his Boss!

He groaned softly under his breath and set his head down on the hard mattress next to where her stomach was, trying in vain to stop the insane flow of 'what if' statements running through his head as he took her hand in his.

What if he hadn't listened to her?

What if she hadn't been there in the first place?

What if he had been the one that was hurt instead?

What if, what if, _what if_.

It was driving him insane, absolutely batty. He pressed his lips to the pale knuckles of her hand briefly. "Wake up, Haruhi," he mumbled under his breath, "Just wake up." And to a orchestra of regret and 'what if's he drifted into a torturous, unfulfilled, sleep.

– _June 1st – 6:24 PM – _

_Everyone else had finally gone home except Ranka. Kyoya refused to leave her side now that he was there next to her. Ken had left with a softly murmured, "Take the next week or so off," and a pat on the back. _

"_I told the nurse you're her fiancé," Haruhi's father muttered, looking across the bed at him. "I can't miss work or my Boss will have my head, regardless of whether my daughter may be dying or not. Take care of her will you, Kyoya-kun?" _

_He nodded stiffly in reply, slightly astonished at the older man's unwavering trust in him despite where he'd landed his daughter. He took his partner's hand gently in his own, worry gnawing a hole in the pit of his stomach. _

"_I trust you, Kyoya-kun. You did what she wanted even when the risk was great and you took care of her afterwords. That's more than anything I could have wanted for her in a friend." _

_He nodded again and Ranka left without another word. _

_He didn't get much peace before his brother entered the room to check on his patient. "I'll tell you what I told her father," Yuiichi muttered, avoiding his eyes, "But that's only because you're my brother and you seem overly worried." _

_Kyoya looked up at him expectantly, eyes betraying only the fact that he was exhausted. "That bullet passed straight through her pancreas and scraped her stomach, making the wall weak. A bit of stomach acid leaked out and caused _more _damage. Took me a while to get that all sown back up. Two blood-transfusions and she nearly flat-lined once. You're lucky she isn't dead." _

_The younger Ohtori was staring hard at the mattress, swallowing back the guilt. "And she would be if you hadn't put pressure on the wound to stall the blood flow when you had. And if the ambulance hadn't already been called in advance. I must say, you suck at aiming for the right, less-dangerous places of the body but your foresight of what the situation might need is incredible." He looked up at his oldest brother, who was smirking lightly after giving him the lecture of the century. "She should be fine if she gets through tonight. I wouldn't worry about it." _

_He shook his head. "I'm going to anyway," he mumbled, resting his chin on the edge of the mattress and closing his eyes. _

– _June 5th – 7:47 AM –_

Haruhi was only blearily aware of the loud beeping of the machine next to her. A beeping the was in rhythm with her own heart, strangely enough. There was also a strange sort of warmth on her left hand. And a sharp pain in her abdomen. All of this she was all but acutely aware of as she cracked her eyes open against the glaring light.

Once the spots had cleared from her eyes she glanced around, wincing at the incredible amount of stabbing pain in her stomach.

A window to the right where the blinds were drawn. An IV ran from her arm up to a small pouch that was hung from a hook. A display hung above her head, showing that he heart rate was normal. And sitting in a chair was a raven-haired 32-year-old man with his head bowed to the mattress, facing her and glasses still on his face. His hand gripped hers loosely.

It brought back memories. They'd gone to the airport in search of Yukito. He'd captured her, held a gun on her head and forced her to make Kyoya shoot him by making the bullet pass through her. Kyoya had shot her.

The sudden realization that he'd actually listened to her when it was an irrational thing that she wanted him to do made her way too acutely of the recovering wound. She gasped slightly, her hand twitching out of her partner's grasp and straight to her stomach. Kyoya jerked awake and stared at her, glasses askew.

"Haruhi?" he breathed, relief flooding through him as he let his head drop to the mattress once more. "I thought I'd killed you."

"It wouldn't have been you," she mumbled, pressing her fingers into her stomach farther to try to subdue the pain. "It would have been Yukito."

"I pulled the trigger," he growled, "I pulled the damn trigger and sent that bullet straight through you." He turned his eyes to her face. "I shot you, Haruhi. I can't forgive myself for that."

"I told you to. It was as much my fault as it was yours. Stop blaming yourself."

"Haruhi," he stated firmly, jaw set, "I _shot _you to get to a suspect. It almost killed you, you realize that? I almost _killed _you."

"It wasn't your fault!" she snapped, sitting up sharply only to be forced to lay back down because the pain shot through her abdomen. She closed her eyes and groaned. When she opened them Kyoya's hand was hovering over the nurse button, his eyes watching her intently. "I'm fine," she muttered, rocking slightly. She knew he was going to continue blaming himself. "I'm alive. That's all that matters."

"You were prepared to die weren't you? You were ready to give yourself up just so that he'd be put in jail," he accused dryly, glaring at her. "Why? _Why? _You know how important you are."

"But I'm _not_," she cried, wincing, "I'm _not _important. The department could still run without me. That's why I told you to shoot. Because I'm expendable." She looked away with this statement, tears stinging her eyes both from the pain and the entire emotion of this conversation.

Kyoya had frozen in his seat, making his face completely devoid of any and all emotion. "What?" he asked, failing to keep the edge out of his voice. "Haruhi." He stopped, laughed for a moment with slight insanity and continued, "Half of the people who work on the day shift work because of you. Myself included. That's why you're important. You make sure it runs effectively." He looked away from her, a pained look crossing his face. "If they lost you, most of the day shift would be lost with you."

Her lips trembled with the effort to keep the sobs in. She didn't know what was worse. The pain blossoming in her abdomen or the emotions running through her. "I didn't know," she choked out, "I didn't know that I had that affect on everyone."

"Well, you do," he grunted, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes for a moment only to open them again with her next question.

"How long have I been out?"

He snorted, opening one eye to look at the clock. "4 days," he murmured. "And you woke me from my first sleep that entire time."

She was partially amazed that he wasn't being the Low Blood Pressure Evil Lord at the moment. But perhaps it was just the situation that was keeping him from being so. If he hadn't slept in nearly 4 days that meant he'd been worried. Extremely so. She sighed and leaned back into her pillows. "You were really worried, hmm?"

He nodded tiredly and took off his glasses to run his hand down his face. "I wasn't exactly prepared to potentially lose my partner of eight years," he muttered under his breath. She shot him a questioning look, all pain suddenly gone. "Honestly, Haruhi. I almost killed you. Bullet passed through your pancreas, barely missing your liver and large intestine, scraped your damn stomach enough to cause a leak, you needed two blood-transfusions, and you nearly flat-lined permanently twice, one of which I was here for. I almost killed you."

His mind flipped at the memory of her flat-lining just days before. Peacefully sleeping one minute and then suddenly her heart rate spiked and died. He'd been forced to stand there numbly as his brothers and a nurse shocked her heart back to live.

Words flashed through his head. _"Go wait in the hall, Kyoya!" _Yuiichi.

"_Charging... Clear!" _Akito.

And that's when Fuyumi had started fretting over him as he waited in the hall. _"Kyoya-kun! Will you be alright?" _

He shook his head to clear it as she huffed in exasperation. "How many times do I have to tell you that _you _didn't almost kill me? _We _did." He smiled softly, genuinely, and gazed at her. "Why the hell were you so worried anyway?"

He had to bite his tongue before bit out a sharp, insensitive reply. "As I said before, I wasn't prepared to potentially lose my partner of eight years. And you didn't wake up for _four days_," he retorted smoothly.

She spied the half-eaten sandwich that Tamaki had left last night at that particular moment. "You weren't _eating_ either?" she accused dryly, glaring at him. "What? I'm hurt so you take it upon yourself to torture yourself to match?"

"I couldn't eat or sleep," he grumbled just as dryly. "Just as much as I couldn't bring myself to leave you here." He gestured to the sandwich. "Tamaki practically shoved that thing down my throat."

"Good," she muttered, inwardly praising the blonde that had tried to make him take care of himself. "There's no reason that you shouldn't have taken care of yourself."

"Haruhi," he hissed, "You become consumed with guilt and then try to do anything but worry yourself raw." She shook her head. He licked his lips and leaned forward, taking her hand in both of his. "You don't get it do you? You're the only one who understands anything that I do. _Anything_. You remember our first case right? That one case I realized that you do this job for the same reason I do. And you were willing to die for it, just like your mom. No other partner I could ever have is like that.

"We've worked together for eight years. That's four fifths of my entire career, most of yours. And we're damn good at it too. After a partnership that long, I'd rather quit then work without you." He stood up shortly after finishing his speech, striding to the window all the while feeling Haruhi's gaze piercing the back of his head. "I told Shichi that if you died, I quit," he added softly, looking out at the landscape.

She was lost for words. He really wasn't as much of an arrogant bastard like he used to be. He actually expressed caring for his colleagues now unlike he had at the beginning.

And yet, she could say the same exact same thing if something like this ever happened to him. "Y'know... I think I'd say the same thing if the positions were switched," she murmured.

–

**A/N: D'aww. Worried Kyoya is so cute. Ahem... Anyway... This was fun to write. And this is slowly drawing to a close. Another chapter to go, two at most. Then... I think I'll write the story of their first case. Since this entire murder-solving team amuses me (and I already have the idea for it in my head.) **

**Sorry for the wait! Kudos to: JollyElfDance554, idontseepenguins, Enigmaticrose4, Lizzy-Chan-InuYasha-Fan, Cool as a Cupcake, and Koharu Veddette!**

**On an off note... Camp was AMAZING! I missed everyone there before I even left. And I'm now eagerly counting the days until I can go back and see them all again! Ask questions if you want to know about it all but there's really too much to say in a single author's note. It was just amazing. And I actually cried when I had to leave. **


	14. Chapter 13: Trial

_Of The Highest Degree_

_By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl_

_Chapter 13 – Trial_

– _June 5__th__– __12:00 PM –_

Haruhi watched her partner sleep peacefully with small smile. He'd finally been able to sleep, though he still wouldn't leave her bedside. She fingered a lock of his hair absently, noting that it was still smooth albeit a bit oily from lack of wash. His hand twitched over hers in his sleep. She closed her eyes, at peace with herself and drifted off into her own sleep.

– _June 5__th__– __6:21 PM –_

Kyoya jerked awake to the sound of a steady beep, though it was more like a shriek than anything. Panic welled in his chest for a moment as he recalled the dream (read as: _Nightmare_) he'd had just seconds before before he realized that the heart giving out was _not _Haruhi's but that of the old woman who was lying in the room adjacent to hers.

He allowed himself to breathe a bit and calm his heart as he glanced at his partner's face. She was just sleeping. And the steady beeping coming from her heart monitor ensured that thought.

He didn't think he'd be able to stand it if that stupid nightmare had been reality when he awoke though. And try as he might, he couldn't seem to push it to the back of his mind either. It nagged at him until the very point that Haruhi gasped awake to a nightmare of her own.

The male didn't miss the fear that seemed to pulse through her as she clutched his hand tightly, not daring to let go. Once she had assured herself that he was indeed sitting there with her, she sighed and leaned back into her pillows.

"Y'know... I saw my mom," she mumbled after awhile, lolling her head to look at him with a small sad smile and slighter duller-than-normal eyes. He threw her a questioning glance as both their hearts slowed back into their regular steady pace. "I think it was one of those times that I flat-lined you were talking about. I saw mom and she... She sent me back." Tears pricked at her eyes but she quickly blinked them away. "She said that she loved me and was proud of me. But that everyone needed me here. Especially you."

The 'especially you' struck a chord in him that caused him to glance up at the ceiling like he could see Kotoko Fujioka clearly in the smooth white tiles. "Why would she say that, I wonder?" he grunted under his breath, looking anywhere but at the woman lying in the bed in front of him.

She shrugged, trying to keep her emotions under wraps. He noticed the pained look on her face and shifted from the chair next to her bed to the edge of it, his hand still clasped in hers. He swallowed gently then murmured, "Are you sad that she turned you away?"

Haruhi's head shook quickly. "No. I'd rather be here than even up there with her. Besides... You need me apparently."

Her soft laughter reverberated through her and caused him to even chuckle a bit as he gazed at her fondly. This woman was one that he definitely would give his life for. Just as she would for him.

– _June 5__th__– __8:14 PM –_

"When do I get to go home?" she groaned loudly. The twins were seated next to her as was Tamaki while Kyoya still held his special spot directly on the edge of her bed. Her partner merely smirked at her question while the twins snickered.

"When Yuiichi deems it so," the raven-haired male replied softly. She glared at him, sick and tired of being stuck in this bed. "We must insure first that you're stable enough to be away from life support, Haruhi."

"I know _that_," she growled unhappily, sulking by crossing her arms over her chest. "But haven't they seen that enough already?"

"We have," a fourth voice spoke from the door. Kyoya didn't even need to turn to look at who it was, it was so familiar to him. He kept his eyes on Haruhi as she looked past him to his eldest brother. "You'll be free to go within the hour."

She heaved a huge sigh of relief and turned her gaze to her friends once more. The twins were celebrating while Tamaki just grinned like an idiot. Her partner seemed to be the only one that didn't look happy with this new development. She rose a single eyebrow at him. "Why is it that you look disappointed that I'm going home?" she asked him with narrowed eyes.

He pulled himself out of his stupor quickly and shook his head. "I'm not disappointed," he disagreed softly, "It's great that you can get out of this place."

She frowned but left him alone as the twins started whining. "Haruhi! You should stay with us tonight!"

Kyoya's eyes shot to the faces of the two mischievous red-heads across from him in a mild glare. "No," Haruhi deadpanned quickly, much to his relief.

The two started to object outrageously while Tamaki went off on a spout about how perverted the twins were for the _things _that they were probably wanting to do to Haruhi. "We've known her longer than you, _idiot_!" they exclaimed.

The bespectacled man rolled his eyes, to which she suppressed a giggle and smiled at him as he leaned over so he could whisper in her ear, "You don't really think that any of us are going to allow you to stay at that little apartment of yours alone do you?"

She gave him an unamused look but shook her head while pouting. She should have known that it wouldn't happen so easily. He glanced over at the three idiots who still hadn't seemed to realize that they were conspiring. "Might I suggest," he murmured, "my apartment as the alternative?" She snorted humorously.

"Shut up you three!" she called over to the blonde and two red-heads. They quieted almost immediately at the tone of voice. "Stop arguing about who I'm staying with. You all know who wins."

Kyoya had to hold back to smug smirk that was trying to fight its way onto his lips when their faces all turned to him accusingly.

– _June 5__th__– __9:23 PM –_

When they opened the door of his apartment, they both sighed at the slightly messy appearance. "Jesus... Who the hell searched this place?" he grumbled under his breath, "They aren't supposed to disrupt things this badly!"

Haruhi covered her mouth with her hand, trying to stifle her slight giggles since it made her still recovering wound ache. He glared at her when she was unable to keep a soft snort from leaving her person. He took her hand and led her to the spare bedroom silently with pursed lips. "Sorry," she mumbled, a hint of a smile still on her lips. "I didn't mean to laugh."

He shook his head and stopped in front of the bedroom that she had been the only person to stay in on a semi-regular basis. He opened his mouth but due to his hesitation nothing came out. "Tomorrow is the court date for Warami and White since the former is still trying to insist that he didn't do anything," he bit out at last with an angry edge. "Seeing as you were taken hostage, you'll be a lawyer and a witness."

She cast her eyes downward to the floor. And here she had thought that this nightmare was over with. "Alright," she muttered, squeezing the hand that had rarely even left her own since she had woken up. "Thanks, Kyoya. For everything."

"Not a problem," he replied, feeling the need to do something more to console her. Instead a lame, "Goodnight, Haruhi," tumbled from his lips. She nodded and murmured a quick goodnight before she slipped through the door and closed it behind her.

– _June 6__th__– __2:32 AM –_

That night there was a storm. One that reflected the nightmares that brought Haruhi screaming out of her dreamland. And brought Kyoya running into her room with worry clearly etched on her face. He sighed when he found her curled up with her hands over her ears.

"There's always something that seems to put us in the same bed isn't there?" he murmured bemusedly as he gently coaxed her shaking form toward his bare chest after sliding under the covers.

She whimpered as a clap of thunder just made her shudder more, images from her nightmare of Kyoya's bloody body illuminated in a flash of lightening. Of Yukito standing over her holding a gun to her head as she knelt by her partner. She wrapped her arms around his waist tightly as if to insure that he was still there.

Kyoya just laid there and stroked her hair while he held her. Soon, she fell asleep again and the exhaustion from his previous four mostly sleepless nights caused him to drift off as well.

– _June 6__th__– __9:00 AM –_

The blaring alarm coming from Kyoya's room woke them. The owner of which groaned softly and pulled the, also quite tired, female closer to him, who gladly pushed her face into the warmth radiating from his torso. When the alarm finally stopped she sighed and mumbled, "Hikaru and Kaoru will probably be here soon to wake us if we don't get up now."

He growled something inaudible in response as he pushed his nose into her hair and the arms clasped behind her back pulled her even closer – if that was possible. She sighed and submitted to letting herself be clutched to his chest, too tired to object and knowing that he wouldn't let her free anyway.

When his alarm went off again 10 minutes later however, she pushed against him slightly, trying to free herself. "Kyoya. Honestly. You know what the twins will do when they find us."

He sighed heavily and grumbled something about being denied early morning pleasures inside his own home as he released her and swung his legs out of the bed. He stumbled off in the direction of his bedroom while she reluctantly pulled herself from the warmth of the covers as well. Kyoya returned while she was stretching with a small bag with some clothes in it for her.

She stared at it. "You didn't go out and buy these did you?"

"No. I went back to your apartment and shuffled around until I found something," he retorted sarcastically, his normal morning mood coming into play. She snorted and snatched the bag from his hands, letting him leave to get ready himself.

She sighed as she heard the shower start running. Maybe he'd be in a better mood after he ate a good meal that she made. Still in her pajamas, she wandered in the direction of the kitchen, noting the severely neglected kitchen.

For someone so organized you'd think that he'd be better at keeping his apartment orderly. She sighed and pulled some eggs from the fridge, cracking them in a pan and putting it on the burner.

When he emerged from the hall, he was still grouchy. She hummed softly to herself and placed a plate of scrambled eggs in front of him once he sat down. Haruhi took off toward the bathroom, taking a spare towel from the linen closet and the bag of clothes he'd gotten for her.

It felt like any other morning when she'd spent the night at his place.

– _June 6__th__– __9:55 AM –_

This little revelation that she'd had while she was showering was bothering her. And it was bothering Kyoya that he didn't know what it was. He was driving toward the courthouse with her looking out the passenger window and her hands neatly folded in her lap. "Haruhi. What's bugging you?"

She shook her head and mumbled, "It's my fault."

His eyes narrowed at her for a moment before returning to the road. "What's your fault?"

"Riyuki and Arashi's deaths."

He blinked a few times, struggling to keep his eyes on the stretch of pavement in front of his car. "And how the hell do you figure that?"

She sighed softly under her breath, eyes turning to him that were shadowed in guilt. "If I'd reported Yukito then he would never have been able to hurt those girls, Karin and Riyuki wouldn't have caught him, he wouldn't have killed them, and then Yora wouldn't have had to cover his tracks for him by killing Arashi. This entire damn thing is my fault."

Despite the fact that it was 3 minutes until they were supposed to be in court, Kyoya jerked the steering wheel the the right and stopped them abruptly off the side of the road. "No," he growled, turning to her with an angry fire in his eyes, "No it isn't. No one blames you and you couldn't have known what would happen. This _isn't _your fault. It's his for being an arrogant bastard and continuing even though he _knew _it was wrong."

She stared at him. "You... You still had feelings for her, didn't you?" He blinked, not expecting that retort but something along the lines of defending how guilty she really was. She took his lack of response as a yes. "Then how can you _not _blame me?"

He snorted, glancing at his watch. "Unbelievable," he muttered under his breath as he pulled away from the curb. "Yes, I still had feelings for her. But I don't blame you because that would just be stupid. You weren't the one that chose to put arsenic in her donuts. You aren't the psycho that thought you could get away with murder. Besides, whether I had feelings for her or not is _not _an issue anymore."

She missed the underlying meaning of his words as she let out a short breath and closed her eyes, leaning her head against the headrest. "Suppose you're right," she said finally as the car came to a halt in front of the courthouse.

"Damn right, I am," he grunted softly, turning off the ignition and sliding out of the car. "Ready?" he added, taking her hand in his as she walked around the front of the car. She nodded and let him lead her inside.

– _June 6__th__– __10:01 AM –_

"All rise for Judge Kawari!"

Haruhi and Kyoya both stood with the rest of those present in the court, the woman wincing slightly as her stitches pulled at her skin a bit. "This is ridiculous," she mumbled under her breath to her partner, "The evidence is so against him that there shouldn't even be a need for trial."

"Patience, Haruhi," he replied softly as the judge motioned for them to sit.

"How does the accused plead?"

"Not guilty," Yukito's lawyer said strongly, glancing over at her, her partner, and the second lawyer that was representing the department. Judge Kawari, having already been over the evidence just sighed and looked over at the jury. She knew this was useless too.

"Very well. Continue with witnesses."

The two detectives sighed under their breath as the defense lawyer brought his client to the stand to share his side of the 'story' with the jury. Which included taking Haruhi hostage as self-defense. "Objection, Your Honor!" she exclaimed, "Several witnesses have already confirmed that neither my weapon nor my partner's was pointed in his direction at all! _And _that he threatened my life once he had me disarmed!"

The Judge shot her down and prompted Yukito to continue. Who was smirking as he finished his pathetic sob story. Kyoya suddenly remembered why he had wanted to go and beat that bastard to death while he was still in the hospital. Haruhi stared ahead hard as the defense lawyer passed the witness off to her.

She glowered at her ex as she walked toward the stand, holding a few printed pictures in her hands. "Do you recognize this person as yourself in any of these pictures, Warami?" She held them up to his face. The tear-streaked faces of girls while he stood over them stared back at him. Haruhi's eyes were cold as he was silent. "Facial recognition software, does." She showed the photos to the jury. "These pictures were found on Riyuki Sachiru's private desktop after she was murdered. She caught you, Warami, so you killed her before she could report you."

His eye twitched slightly as her incriminating questionnaire continued.

Finally she murmured, "No further questions," and returned to her seat next to Kyoya.

"Next witness," Kawari grunted.

Haruhi called Yora to the stand, who Yukito shot a look at as he took his seat up front. Yora told the jury the same things that he'd told Kyoya and Haruhi before, even as he was admitting his own part of the guilt in the crimes committed.

When the time finally came for Haruhi to come up on the stand she glared at Yukito. "Fujioka-san, did you enter the airport with the intent of capturing Warami-san forcefully?" the defense lawyer asked her calmly.

"Yes," she answered, "But-"

"And," he interrupted quickly, "Did you ever think that he might have been alarmed by the sight of guns?"

"Yes! That's why we were hiding them at first! As to not alarm him and others there!"

"But, you didn't think that he might have merely been on his way to a vacation did you?"

"I didn't think that at all. But-"

"Why didn't you-?"

The defense lawyer was interrupted by the second offense one for the department who exclaimed, "Is he going to let her finish a thought?" Haruhi shot a quick look a gratitude at her colleague. Yukito's lawyer sighed and waved for the offense to question. "Fujioka-san, can you explain what exactly happened?"

"His credit card records showed that he had bought a ticket to Beijing only a few minutes after we finished questioning White-san. We could only assume that he was fleeing the country. At the time we were on our way to his apartment to pick him up."

"We being you and Ohtori-san?"

"Correct," she murmured, "We entered the airport disguised as a married couple so we wouldn't alert anyone there and cause Warami to try and run. I thought I saw him not far from where we passed through security, so I advanced only to find that it wasn't him. That was the time that Warami snuck up on me and wrapped his arm around my neck, pulling the gun from my grasp. The fact that he snuck up on me makes it precognitive. Not instinctual self-defense."

"Did he threaten you?"

"Yes. In fact at one point, after he made his demands to my partner, he said, and I quote, 'I'll tell you a secret. You aren't leaving this airport alive. As soon as I'm home free, I'm shooting you through the head. I told you I'd kill you, Haruhi.'"

"Thank you, Fujioka-san," her colleague said, smiling with just a taint of smugness. Haruhi stepped down to trade places with Kyoya since he was the next one to come onto the stand.

As always, the defense got first pickings on him. The very first question out of the defense's mouth was, "You were the one to shoot your partner weren't you?"

That struck a nerve in Kyoya, who immediately looked at Haruhi who glowered at the defense that she was beginning to hate with an open mouth. "Objection!" she called, "Ohtori-san is not on trial nor is Warami being charged with my injury!"

The defense attorney ignored her and continued. "Why did you shoot Fujioka-san?"

"She consented to it. To get to Warami since he was obviously not letting her free alive," Kyoya answered coolly.

"Objection!" Haruhi said again loudly when the defense attorney tried to continue on with the same subject.

Finally Judge Kawari muttered, "Jora, please refrain from accusing the witnesses that aren't charged or on trial."

The brunette was pleased with herself as she sat again. Jora sighed and let Kyoya free. "The offense calls Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin to the stand, Your Honor." The twins both hopped out of their seats and awaited to do what they did best – present the evidence that would throw the bad guys in jail.

– _June 6__th__– __12:11 PM –_

It was past noon by the time that the Judge dismissed court for the jury to speculate and eat lunch. The team walked out together. "Sushi sound good?" Haruhi asked them all with a yawn. Kyoya and the twins bobbed their heads in approval while Hunny cheered from next to Mori. Renge had a back-up of work back at the department and decided to take lunch there.

"I will shoot someone if the jury says he's innocent," Kyoya muttered under his breath, his hand subconsciously slipping into his partner's as they walked out of the courthouse. The brunette smiled and squeezed his hand, sensing something tender moving within her.

"Ah crap," Kaoru grumbled, "I left my wallet at home."

Hikaru sighed and glanced at the other four. "Meet at that Sushi place on 8th in 10?" They agreed and slid into their various vehicles. Kyoya and Haruhi in theirs, Mori and Hunny in another, and the twins in a third.

It was then that Haruhi realized that Kyoya had not yet let go of her hand. She glanced up at him. "Something bothering you?" she asked softly.

He shook his head and turned to start the car. "Warami's lawyer just seems to know how to get under my skin," he muttered, a frown working its way onto his face.

She sighed and replied, "How many times do I need to tell you that it isn't your fault?"

"Doesn't change the fact that it was my choice. And that choice still almost killed you." A small kind of pained look crossed his face. "I've already told you that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened."

This time she did catch the underlying meaning of his words and she leaned over the seat to embrace him. "I don't think I got to thank you for staying with me," she explained as he hesitantly hugged her back.

"You're welcome," he murmured into her hair.

She caught herself thinking about what it would be like if they could be more then friends right there. And she shot down the idea immediately by swearing and muttering, "Rule 12."

He scowled at her. "Why bring that up?" He seemed unhappy that she'd remembered that particular rule of Ken's. Then it dawned on him what she had been thinking. He snorted and pulled away from her, putting the car in gear and driving away. "Unbelievable," he growled for the second time that day.

Oh great. It seemed that he was mad at her now. He refused to talk the rest of the way to the restaurant.

"Kyoya," she said, yanking on his sleeve to bring him to a halt outside the doors. "Why are you so mad all of a sudden?"

He shook his head and chuckled harshly. "Because," he grunted, "I was thinking that maybe I'd actually ask you to dinner. But since that's _breaking a rule _I suppose I can't, can I?" He pulled his arm out of her grasp and left her standing there to blink until she caught on to the meaning of his words.

"Kyoya! Wait!" she exclaimed, pushing through the doors and catching him by the arm again as he followed a waitress to a table for 6. "I'm sorry. I was just... I'm stupid. I didn't mean that. I was just... thinking things that I shouldn't have. And... I'm sorry ok?"

He smirked and rolled his eyes at her apology. "Sorry enough to go out to dinner with me?" he asked sarcastically. It took her a moment to bite her lip and nod. A small smile found a place on his lips. "And I hope you know that those rules are really just guidelines not actual law," he added in a whisper as his lips closed in over hers.

Her eyes popped open a little as a couple of identical whistles sounded. Haruhi pulled herself away to glare at the twins, who had just magically appeared in the restaurant at that very moment. "About time!" they chimed, sliding into two seats at the table next to them.

"You didn't really leave your wallet at home did you, Kaoru?" Haruhi accused dryly, pulling Kyoya by the hand down to sit next to her.

"Not at all!" he confirmed with a grin.

"Honestly," the older muttered, "What took you guys-"

"-so long?"

The two detectives shook their heads and smiled, refusing to tell them. Even after Hunny and Mori arrived, their lips stayed sealed.

– _June 6__th__– __1:08 PM –_

Once everyone had returned, the jury made their proclamation. "To the charges of murder in the first degree, aggravated assault, sexual assault, and conspiracy to murder, we find the defendant, Yukito Warami, guilty of all charges."

Haruhi couldn't stop the smug smile from working its way onto her lips as she looked at Yukito.

Judge Kawari nodded and called out, "Sentenced to life in jail. Case dismissed."

For the second time that day, Kyoya and Haruhi walked out of the courthouse, hand-in-hand. They were about to get in their car when Ken stopped them. "Body found on 58th and 131st. Think you two can handle it?"

They glanced at each other briefly and nodded.

"Oh and I heard from the twins," he added, looking between the two of them questioningly, "What took you so long?"

Kyoya snorted and resisted the urge to smack his former mentor over the head. "I think you know the answer to that, Ken."

"Rules," Haruhi murmured, sliding into the passenger's seat with Kyoya in the driver's seat several seconds later.

Crime never seemed to stop in Tokyo, but together the two of them worked to put the wrong-doers behind bars.

**THE END**

–

**A/N: WHOOOOOOOOO. IT'S FIIIIIINIIIIISHED. And this is probably a good time to mention that I'm changing my pen name to E.M. Megs on here now that I've finished this one. :D **

**Working on LD. **

**Look out for the story of their first case! Coming soon! **

**Thanks for the continued support of everyone who read this and reviewed/alerted it! Kudos for last chapter to: BlackestNight BrightestDay, JollyElfDance554, Enigmaticrose4, idontseepenguins, and Koharu Veddette! **

**By the way. Rule 12: Never date a co-worker. **


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